NAVAL BASES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20385, 14 October 1929, Page 10

NAVAL BASES.

So far as Anglo-American relations only are concerned, the suggested demilitarisation of the British naval bases at Halifax, Bermuda and Jamaica would be a significant step. It has been pointed out by United States naval strategists, as regularly as the subject has come up for discussion, that these three British bases effectively cover all that their country has in this way. To remove their batteries, therefore, would be a gesture of some value. But the matter has to be looked at somewhat differently to see all that would be involved by relinquishing these bases. If they served only to cover the similar facilities of the United States, this might be done as part of an Anglo-American rapprochement. They have also a part to play in assuring the full mobility of the' British fleet, The experience of the last war proved them to be far from negligible. It cannot be reasonably expected that, whatever the strategic value of these fortified spots, the wish of the United States for a peaceful understanding with Britain will be much affected, one way or the other, by their military abandonment. That would be to reverse the natural order of events. If the people of the United States really want an established peace with Britain, they will insist on it without waiting for these bases to he scrapped. "When the two peoples have at length sworn enduring affection, it will be time enough to consider the dismantling of these bases —and probably there will then be a united wish to retain their equipment, as conferring advantage on both countries, viewed as having common interests, in Panama and elsewhere in the vicinity.