THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1924. THE SQUADRON'S WAKE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18711, 17 May 1924, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, MAY 17, 1924. THE SQUADRON'S WAKE.

The Special Service Squadron, departing from New Zealand waters, will leave behind impressions likely to remain for a very long time. The three weeks that have elapsed since the ships first made harbour in the Dominion have been memorable in many ways. They have%een a time of carnival. As port after port has been visited by portions of the squadron, until it assembled in its entirety a week ago in the Waitemata, each place has been en fete. Not only the towns, but many distant country settlements, have shared this gaiety, ' for country folk have for the nonce Jeft 9,11 to see the ships. To this gaiety the officers and men of the squadron have contributed not a little. They have not been content to be entertained : they have themselves right royally entertained a large number of their hosts, organising social functions as only the navy can. After such a round of enjoyment, to see the ships hull down on the horizon, heading north for their last contact with our coast off Russell, will give to many a sense of loss. But the gap will hold many pleasant memories, together with much serious reflection on the purpose and potency of the visit.

There has been impressed indelibly the truth of the Empire's dependence upon the open highway of the sea. These ships bear witness to the part played by the navy in the past. In some of their names, in many details of their'equipment, in much of their routine, they lift the imagination swiftly across centuries and illuminate the fact that there could have been no "■ expansion of England " had not the ocean ways been held long ago by our nation's fleet in days of fierce international rivalry. So, in more recent years, the might of that fleet has preserved Britain from invasion and given Greater Britain the security needful for its unity. As . Philip of Spain, intriguing to land forces in England, was made helpless when Elizabeth's ships ' scattered the Armada, so Napoleon, seeking to " leap the ditch," as he contemptuously called the English Channel, . was outmatched at Trafalgar. Had Nelson failed : all history would in all probability have been differently written. Since then the Empire has made amazing progress, preserving its unity as it has extended its borders. Without an invincible fleet that would have been impossible. To-day that unity remains. The far-off Dominions are yet in touch with the Motherland and with each other, and they have no other adequate means of close personal intercourse except by the ocean-road that the navy has kept open. The squadron's very composition expresses that maintained unity. The Dunedin stays when the other visiting ships put out, stays as our own cruiser, relieving the Chatham ; and the Adelaide, already in. their company, though delayed to-day in harbour, will later join the battle cruisers and go with them to the Atlantic. New Zealand and Australia are, by that token, part and parcel of the Empire. The squadron's testimony is definite.

A sense of Britain's might is also bequeathed to us by the departing ships. The limitations set by the Washington Conference have severely checked the building of great battleships. To Britain the maintenance of the old two-Power standard has become impossible; and a navy equivalent to that of the United States, and less than twice the size of that of Japan, is all that is allowed by international agreement. Yet, although not the representative of a numerous class, the Hood is a veritable marvel in size and power. Alone, she would be impressive beyond reckoning; one wonders how any enemy ship could live for five minutes if she attacked. Backed up by the Repulse and the light cruisers, she could make short work of any alien naval division. And this might is at the disposal of the Empire. Power is not to be despised in these days of doubt as to the ultimate naval policy to be approved by the Western concert of peoples. Even the League of Nations depends upon the might of its chief members. It was not designed as a union of weaklings. An up-to-date, well-equipped and well-manned fleet, such a fleet as the visiting squadron typifies, is calculated not only to defend its own nation from injury, but also to exercise a salutary in-

fluence upon other nations' New ! Zealand has had an object lesson that will not be lost upon her. The navy of which she (has so often heard, whose power has been evidenced hitherto by some scattered examples, has been seen in larger part -than formerly. Not only so, but the excellence of its personnel has been seen also. And a new sense of security has been engendered among us. Yet Vice-Admiral Field has not allowed the occasion to pass unimproved. There is need for Imperial candour and co-operation, he states, and proceeds to detail the leading ways in which help will be welcome from the Empire's overseas territories. His words, it is to be hoped,, will find soil prepared for such sowing. New Zealand, farthest Dominion from the Homeland, cannot afford to withhold money from the navy; for its own sake, it must co-operate more adequately than hitherto. The squadron, charged with Imperial significance, passes on its Imperial way. Its lessons of the fact, the unity and the might of the Empire are left for New Zealanders' guidance and inspiration.