NEW ZEALAND AND A NAVY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16121, 9 July 1914, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND AND A NAVY

OPINION IN AUSTRALIA. DR M'NAB REMOVES MISAPPREHENSIONS. (Pes United Press Association.) WELLINGTON, July 8. When Dr M'Nab was in Sydney he was astonished to find on reading the papers and discussing the matter with press reporters that the opinion was universally held in the city that New Zealand had embarked on a naval policy on all fours with that of the Commonwealth, and that the dominion intended to havo a fleet of its own in the Pacific waters. He told this to a representative of the Times, who interviewed him on his return lrom Australia yesterday, and said ho had done what ho could to dissipate the wrongful idea. "It was, with difficulty," ho remarked', "that I persuaded them that the members of the Ministry themselves repudiated any sucli policy, though they were in a large measure opposed to the Liberal policy ot direct contribution to the navy. 1 was assured that our Minister of Defence (the Hon. James Allen), when in Australia, had; conveyed the impression of a Now Zealand navy to the press there. I could only reply that if that were his policy, then ■the policy of the Ministry of to-day had undergone serious modification. I also stated that although there was a material difference between the intentions of the present Governmnt and the policy of the Ward Ministry, I had no doubt whatever that the ccin-ing general elections would secure a return to the Ward policy. To this I added that the shadow of coming events was responsible for tho uncertainty which prevailed in Cabinet circles to-day regarding their naval policy." Dr M'Nab went, on to say' that reports which had recently been mado public in Australia regarding the building of their navy at Sydney wore causing a deal of division 'of opinion in tho Commonwealth, and the fear was openly expressed that unless some radical change took place in tho methods of construction, etc., tho delay in turning out the vessels at Sydney would' result in half tho efficient life of the ships being lost.