BRITAIN'S NAVAL STATUS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 17853, 6 August 1921, Page 9

BRITAIN'S NAVAL STATUS.

NEED FOR CAPITAL SHIPS.

GRAVE DANGERS IN DELAY.

VOTE CARRIED BY HOUSE. By Telegraph-Press Association-Copyright. A. and N.Z. LONDON. Aug. 4. Tn the House of Commons to-night, in discussion of the Naval Estimates providing for the construction of four battleships, Mr. Winston Churchill, Secretary of State for the Colonies, deprecated aggravation of the situation by extreme lang Ua g e . It was an f ae t that except for the Hood the leading capital units had not been reinforced for more than seven years. In the meantime two other navies had been revolutionised, according to the lessons learned in the late war. If Britain delayed for another year she would sink to the level of a. third-rate Power, and might never recover. She would exist as a great Power on sufferance only. Her power to guide events for good would cease, and she could not extend to the Dominions that protection which she had always been proud to extend. Our hopes of the Washington conference were very sincere, but unless it could be assumed that the ships now building for Japan and America would bo scrapped, the disarmament decision at. Washington would bo irrelevant to the decision reached by the House. "If we fail to construct now we stereotype the present position of inferiority indefinitely," added Mr. Churchill. "Britain must declare she will not accept a position of definite naval inferiority. Let us be sure we rely on our own strength, and never allow our sea power to fall to a point when we will be forced, to make entangling agreements to avoid a path which would lead to very great disaster, not only to ourselves, but to the whole world." The vote was carried.