CRUSHING OF JAPAN

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24258, 27 April 1942, Page 6

CRUSHING OF JAPAN

EARL JELLICOE'S WARNING SEA POWER K£Y TO VICTORY The fact that the formation of a powerful British fleet in the Far East had been advocated by the late Earl Jeliicoe following his world tour after the Great War was mentioned last night by Commodore W. E. Parry, who has been,, succeeded by Commodore Sir Atwell H. Lake as Chief of the Naval Staff and First Member of the Naval Board. The period of Commodore Parry's loan from the Royal Navy has expired. Commodore Parry said Lord Jeliicoe had also suggested that Japan would strike with little warning. Unfortunately, Lord Jellicoe's proposals had been checkmated by the Washington Naval Conference and the war-weari-ness of the Allies. Commodore Parry said his own Commander-in-Chief when he was stationed in the Far East in 1933 had expressed the view that if war came in North China waters the British ships would be caught like rats in a trap. Japan realised that. Japan's strength in the past and at present, said Commodore Parry, was based on sea power, and the Allies' problem was to break that. The inclusion of New Zealand in a South Pacific naval command was important, for sea power was the key to victory. He knew that the Dominion would rise to the occasion in the great part that lay ahead, as had his ship's company in the Achilles.