ASHAMED OF AUSTRALIA.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18078, 1 May 1922, Page 6

ASHAMED OF AUSTRALIA.

APATHY OVER THE NAVY.

MORE INTERESTED IN SPORT.

LATE COMMANDER AS CRITIC

By Toloßnuch—Press A e&i nation— Copyriffht. (Recoivod 11.50 p.ia.) A. t.nd N.Z. SYDNEY. April 30. Rear-Admiral Dumaresq, the departing commander of the Australian Navy, t in an interview, commented on tho unpleasant fact that Australians failed to realise tho importance of preserving the minimum naval force which would preserve the soul of anything that could be called a fleet and that must be preserved through bad times as well as good. If the total amount spent by sport-loving C4uatralians on racing and other 6porta was assessed it would amount to very many times the cost of a tactically efficient Royal Australian Fleet. He could not help feeling that on arrival in E; .rr'.and he would feel ashamed of AnstralL>. on account of the attitude it had taken up over the navy. Speaking of the future, the rear-admiral eaid he hoped the navy would never be. allowed to drop bei >w three li£;ht cruisers, a small minimum of destroyers and submarines. Tho soul oi anything like a navy could not bo maintained below that limit. Referring to developments at the Genoa Conference, he urged the need of keeping up an adequato minimum naval force to secure a fair share of tho world's markets and of tho raw materia] of the World, and, in tho case of Australia, tho freedom of the seas to export primary products.