NAVAL CONFERENCES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 156, 30 June 1914, Page 6

NAVAL CONFERENCES.

It is probably true, as the London Tiroes suggests, that the real Imperial need of the moment is a conference on naval defence. In the ordinary course an Imperial Conference will be held next year, and as both New Zealand and Australia will be involved in general elections during the later months of this year, it appears to be impracticable to anticipate that date. The Dominion and the Commonwealth will then both be represented by Ministers who have freshly received tho approval of the country, and it is probable that by the time the conference meets a general election will have been fought in the United Kingdom also. The constant references in the English press to the mistrust of the Pacific British communities of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance show that the view urged by the Herald is now accepted as the dominant one in New Zealand, as it certainly is in Australia, and probably in Canada. The Admiralty and' the British pub-

lie will be prepared to hear these countries speak with a united voice, and it would be wise for the British Pacific Governments to exchange views, or arrange for a preliminary meeting of their representatives, with the object of reaching an understanding as a basis of action at the Imperial Conference. The interest! in the Pacific of Australia, New Zealand, and tho West of Canada are identical. All are sparsely populated, and all front Asiatic countries of teeming millions. All realise danger—economic, social, moral, and racial—from the immigration of Asiatics, and all are resolved to exclude race aliens. They realise, further, that their ability to maintain an exclusion policy depends, in the ultimate, not on treaties with Asiatic Powers, but on their armed strength. Therefore, New Zealand, Australia, and Canada— as far as the latter is a Pacific country—are equally concerned to have an effective British naval force in this ocean, and may well make joint representations to this effect at the Imperial Conference. One point upon which the Dominion must insist, if the conferences are not to become a mere farce, is that agreements entered into shall be binding on all parties to them, unless varied or annulled by mutual consent. ' The present crisis would not have arisen had the agreement made in 1909 between Sir Joseph Ward and the Admiralty been kept. If the British Admiralty is to change its policy at the whim of its temporary political head, and in doing so to repudiate at its pleasure agreements made with the Dominions, anything like a concerted programme of Imperial defence becomes impossible. Had New Zealand broken the agreement freely entered into, she would have been discredited in the family of sister nations; there is no reason why the Admiralty should be judged by a lower standard. Clearly, the whole value of conferences on Imperial questions depends on mutual good faith between the states of the Empire.