COLONIAL DEFENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVII, Issue 14301, 22 February 1910, Page 4

COLONIAL DEFENCE.

The unqualified endorsement given by Mr. Deakin to the whole of the scheme submitted by* Lord Kitchener to the Federal Government justifies the assumption that it will be accepted by the Commonwealth and become the basis of Australian national defence. Those who have assumed that there is no danger whatever of any serious military attack upon any of our colonics i as long as the British Navy remains unbeaten at sea must be convinced by the emphatic statement of the greatest military authority, .in the Empire that this assumption is unsound. There is, in Lord Kitchener's opinion, a distinct possibility of invasion, as well as raid, being attempted upon Australia in the event of strategic necessity requiring the. concentration of the Navy at a distance from her coasts. His proposal aims at making Australia secure against any such danger. Not only

does this promise Australians the feeling •of security they are so earnestly seeking, but it ensures greater mobility to the Navy than would otherwise be possible. Lord Kitchener's scheme for New Zealand will 1 doubtless be designed to meet the same end; we may anticipate that this will be received by Sir Joseph Ward as warmly as the Australian scheme has been received by Mr. Deakin.