ADMIRAL’S “HIT.”

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 254, 23 September 1933, Page 6

ADMIRAL’S “HIT.”

NAVAL EXERCISES AND THE EXCHANGE RATE. (By Telegraph—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 22. Speeches were not a feature of the official Government luncheon in honour of the Admiral and officers of the Australian Squadron visiting Wellington, but Rear-Admiral Dalglish, C. 8., in his response to the toast of the Australian Navy, made quite a hit, to his own complete astonishment. Warning liis hearers not to expect any flight of oratory, he proceeded to explain how the Canberra and the Australia had come into New Zealand waters for joint exercise with the New Zealand ships. At the beginning of the year, he said, he had a plan to send one of the Australian ships to the Mediterranean to take part in the work of the Mediterranean Squadron whilo one of the British ships would come to Australia. “But it was turned down on the question of the exchange,” he concluded. Loud laughter greeted this explanation and the Admiral turned questioningly to the Prime Minister (Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes) who was not helpful, for he was enjoying the joke and kept laughing. However, the Admiral explained that the alternative was a joint exercise with the New Zealand Squadron, which had been of great value, and he concluded a happy speech with references to the Dominion’s overwhelming hospitality. After the luncheon he discovered that, unwittingly, lie had stumbled into one of the most controversial questions now before the New Zealand Parliament.