COMMANDER BURKE'S ADVICE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1708, 24 December 1919, Page 3

COMMANDER BURKE'S ADVICE.

AN IMPERIAL NAVY. ( LESSONS FROM OSTEND. Per Press Association. WELLINGTON, Doc. 23.

LicutrComniandcr Bourko, V.C.. D.5.0., w.ho was in charge of motor launch ’i76 during the operations at* Ostcnd in! April and May, 1918, was accorded a welcome at the, Town Hall this afternoon. , Lient ; Conimander Bourke, replying, mentioned that he was not in New Zealand it. an 'official' capacity, therefore any opinions expressed by Him: were' simply his personal views. “I think myself,” he said, “flint New Zealand was never in greater need than'new of an Imperial Navy; capable, i'u the event of war. of keeping an enemy fleet from putting to sea. I .have come to this conclusion after my oxpenetice of Working With monitors on the Belgian ■'•coast: Tie; monitors patrolled the Belgian coast daily, i voided by destroyers, and bombarded • win never th6y wished to. They' Went within ten and twenty miles ■of the coast in broad daylight, and under the cover of a smoke screen bombarded sVith absolute impunity. .The motor launches made ,9.. dense bank of smoke between the Monitors and the enemy' shore Batteries,‘'and I don’t know of in single instance of a inonitpr being liit by an enemy shell throughout the operations. }f Ostontl'lin'd not beoii a Belgian port, the. monitors' could •qiiife destroyed it. In the biggest bombardment there were eight monitors with 12in._ and 18in. gnus, and oaeli monitor was firing lit , the ('rate of one round every thirty seconds. Each shell was capable, of completely wrecking a big building, if fids terrific lire had been concentrated on .Oatend insfend of on the enemy batteries' and coastal defences; yon can imagine wlmt the ell eel would lni’ - o been. * . • “Almost all the important towns., in New Zealand are on or'near :)ie'const.'iind in.tH’ event of war, and the Imperial Navy being defeated; there is nothing to 'prevent ‘an enemy from coming within ten or twenty miles of the coast in day time, under cover of a smoke screen, and destroying , town, after town with impunity. The oiKd.gy had batteries 1 on the Belgian coast, mounting 225 gniiS along a stretch of twelve miles, and 136' of these guns were from 6in to .TSijL,' the big guns ranging ■ up- to twenty miles. If’ the New Zealand batteries mounted life, same number of gnus per mile ns the' enemy did on the Belgian coast, which, of course, is quite impossible, they would still be absolutely powerless to prevent, an ■enemy fleet, in the daytime, under cover of a smoke screen, from destroying town after town. It is on account of this that I have come, to the conclusion that the only safety for Hid towns of New Zealand, iii the event of war, is to have an Imperial Navy, capable"of-holding an enemy navy from proceeding to sea. In order to have n strong navy it is essential that-voii should have a strong Navy League, and I"think there is no time when the work of the', Naw League is of greater importance than, now.”