NAVAL DEFENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 15937, 3 December 1913, Page 4

NAVAL DEFENCE.

The Naval Defence Bill, which will probably be brought on for its second reading in the House of Representatives this evening, provides tho machinery for giving efieot to the Ministerial proposals in so far as they aim at tho provision of facilities for the naval training of young residents of tho dominion. It authorises the Governor to raise, maintain, and organise such permanent naval forces as he deems necessary, and provides that these forces shall be raised and kept by voluntary enlistment only. Enlistment in the naval forces, it k provided, shall be for such period—in no case for less than two years —as shall be prescribed, and it is proposed that any person under the age of 21 years may, with tho written consent of his parent or guardian, enlist for the prescribed period subject to the condition that that period shall not exceed the time required for him to attain the age of 30 years. The Bill contains a provision whereby members of the naval forces, when discharged, shall be drafted into the New Zealand Royal Naval Reserve which is to be established and shall thereafter be liable for such period as may be prescribed for service only in timo of war. Members of the naval forces, it is provided further, may be required to serve for training or on any naval service either within or beyond the limits of New Zealand, and they may, for fiuch purpose, be placed by tho Governor on board any. ship of the lung's Navy or of the navy of any part of the British dominions or in any naval training establishment or school in connection with any such navy. Another important section provides that in case of war the 'naval forces of the dominion shall pass under the control and be at the disposition of Great Britain until such time as peace shall have been declared. The Bill, it will be seen, does not cover what may be called the contingent portion of the Government's proposals—namely, that which contemplates the acquisition and maintenance by the dominion of a modern cruiser in the event of the Admiralty finding itself unable to fulfil ( its undertaking of 1909 to the extent, at least, of detaching two cruisers from the China squadron in time of peace and stationing them in New Zealand. That branch of the Government's proposals will be reserved for consideration next year. For the present, Parliament is asked to sanction the commencement by the dominion of the work of training her. own men in a vessel to be provided by the Admiralty with that object in view, the naval subsidy annually paid to the Imperial Government being reducible by the cost of tho training scheme. This proposal in itself should be accepted without much demur by the Legislature. The Government is perhaps unduly sanguine in its expectations of the number of recruits that will offer, but, provided the scheme proves as attractive to young men as it is officially anticipated it will, the idea of undertaking the training of personnel for the Navy is one that may readily be commended. It may be suggested that the Bill now before Parliament goes further than merely to create the machinery for the execution of this schema Possibly, its terms do give 6omo colour to the belief that it aims at the establishment of the.nucleus of a local navy. It is really to be hoped, however, that the Government has no thought of committing the country to any such project as that of maintaining a fleet unit of its own. The dominion is in no position at the present time to embark upon any such project, even if it were strategically sound—which is, to say the least, exceedingly doubtful—and an assurance from the Minister of Defence that nothing ot the kind is contemplated would be highly welcome.