IMPERIAL PROBLEMS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11952, 29 April 1902, Page 5

IMPERIAL PROBLEMS.

SPEECH BY SIR J. WARD.

JAPANESE ALLIANCE,

THE QUESTION OF DEFENCE

[BY telegraph.—own CORRESPONDENT.]

Wellington-, Monday. In his speech at the farewell to Mr. Camcross at Mosgiel on Friday night, Sir Joseph Ward, speaking for himself and many others, said he had an absolute repugnance to anything in the shape of a. standing army being established and was opposed in the samu way to militarism. They could depend on it that their colony was regarded as one of the plums of the Empire, and there was nothing more natural in the ordinary course of events than that, should some of the great Powers be at loggerheads with the Old Country, they would look at us ill a different way than they had done in the past. The Avar of the future would bo a commercial one. What were the great progressive nations of Germany and Franco doing ? One had given a subsidy of £400,000 for a lino of steamers to Australia and the other £230,000 for a similar purpose. Did they suppose that the Governments of those countries were expending money for sentimental reasons to create trade ? Did they suppose that when the tune came for the British Empire to reckon with its own trade it was going to let it go without a struggle V Those who had watched the current of events in the Old Land Must have recognised that what was takii g place was due entirely to the desire to get ready for a commercial warfare in tin future. Those who had watched the conn e of events iu the Old Land could not attam too much importance to the alliance with that extraordinary country which had been pushing itself forward among the nations, Japan. No one could realise the outcome of that alliance, and they could depend upon it that the causes that hud brought it about were very deep-seated indeed. They had their Premier, with Premiers of the other colonics, j going Home to take part in the Premiers' Conference, and hey could depend upon it that it would be the most remarkable meeting recorded in the annals of the country to which we belong. They would find that the knotty problems that required to bo solved would in some instances be subordinated not to what was desirable or possible, but to exigencies. Tu New Zealand he believed every right-thinking person would strongly oppose any effort to create a local navy. It had been talked of in Australia, but would be one of the worst things that, could be established for the defence of Australia. We must look to the British navy for our defence. They would find before many years that for commercial purposes Russia, Germany, and France would coalesce. He ridiculed the idea that France would never coalesce with Germany so long as the bitter feuds existed in connection with Alsace and Lorraine. ' Who was there, he asked, 10 years ago, who would have said that such a powerful nation as ours would have given up one of the keys of the Pacific in the Island of Samoa to' the German nation V It was done because something greater had to be obtained by England in some other form from Germany. They had established in New Zealand," and ought to support it liberally, a volunteer force, and the British navy. In'the Australasian colonies public opinion should be created for ail Imperial zollverein, by which lie meant the union of the United States, Canada, Australia. New Zealand, and Japan. It was by combination with other countries that we were going to bold our sway and independence against any other combination.