"THE NAVY IS US"

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIV, 2 April 1930, Page 7

"THE NAVY IS US"

MR BALDWIN'S MISGIVINGS Misgivings regarding the proceeding of the Labour Government in conncc-i tion with the Naval Conference wore expressed recently by Mr Stanley Baldwin. However, ■ he added : ''Wo do take some comfort in a declaration made by fcho Prime Minister tiio other day when he gavo expression to a sentiment with which we are in full agreement, but which;; coming from the party which he leads, is the first timo such' an utterance had ever been made: 'Tho Navy is us.' I cannot resist, in tho presence of Lord Salisbury, quoting a few words uttered by the Labour Prime Minister of England: 'The Kingdom of England cannot bo assailed from Spain. or the Low Countries except by

sea, and therefore Tier Majesty s special and most-chief defence must be ships.' That is bred into tho bone of the British people. Thai is why on all questions of naval disarmament — come as naval disarmament nuisl and will—(hero is a peculiar sensibility among our people, people whose advent into these islands was only made by crossing the seas. from whoso coasts they vatched for centuries to see the arrival.of .their enemies and to defeat them: the seas across which our own sons lnne gpno into every corner of tho world, taking with them their traditions of freedom and liberty, that island in which, whether the wind blows from the west or the east, thoro is not a. corner of it in which the salt is not blown into our nostrils. Tho Navy, indexed, is us, and when wo discuss naval matters wo ar'> touched far beyond our intellect; wo arc touched in the depths of our sentiment and of our hearts."