THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1915. NAVAL DEFENCE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 16292, 27 January 1915, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 1915. NAVAL DEFENCE.

Primarily, we have been assured, the visit which the Prime Minister of Australia is making to New Zealand is in the nature of a holiday. If we may judge from the programme which was prepared for him yesterday—the only day ho could spare for Dunedin—and acquiesced in by him, Mr Fisher is one of those men who take their pleasures not sadly but strenuously. It is gratifying at the same time to know that Mr Fisher, who has >een a welcome guest, not only because he occupies a position of great distinction and influence in the commonwealth but i'so upon personal grounds, has derived much, enjoyment and benefit from his trip to these islands. Mr Fisher is, however, combining business with pleasure, and he is 'especially making it his business to impress the people of New Zealand, so far as opportunity serves and so far as it is within his power to do so, with a serise of the importance of naval defence and with a sense of the need, as he conceives, for the adoption of a policy of self-reliance in naval defence. He is too shrewd a politician and too courteous a gentleman to seek to lecture the people of the dominions on the subject. But it was apparent in all the speeches which he delivered yesterday and which were marked by a ring of earnestness and sincerity that he is greatly desirous of securing the co-opera-tion of New Zealand with Australia in the maintenance of a Pacific fleet. He came very closely, indeed, at the mayoral reception to a direct advocacy of the establishment by the dominion of a fleet unit—whether independently or in eoi junction with the commonwealth is immaterial. He argued that, as a result of her maintenance of a local fleet, Australia was stronger to-day and more closely united to the Mother Country than at any previous time in her history. In another speech he described the Australian navy as a Heaven-sent gift, and he declared, with a touch of passion, that the principle which made such a navy an asset to Aus-

tralia was tho inspiration : ' ::ave to t'~e people who owned it, iiki:.: n, and <<.■:■• trolled it. "Are wo as manly men and womanly women, to ask the Mother Country," said Mr Fisher, " to provide for our own defence and also to help provide for your defence? Surely wo belong to a race ami land capable, of doing for ourselves what our forefathers have done :n the Mother Country." Mr Boyd, a member of tho Federal I/eginluture who is accompanying the Prime Minister of An:; tralia, went further than Mr Fisher did in his references to the subject. In effect ho insisted that it was the duty of Nrf>v Zealand to provide for her naval defence upon lines corresponding with those that have been adopted in his own country. 'Hie views expressed by Mr Fisher and Mr Boyd —especially those expressed by a statesman speaking with the authority that is associated with the office of Prima Minister of Australia—are entitled to a very great deal of respect and considn'otion. Tho people of Australia, of whom we aro told, 90 per cent, are favourable to the policy of a local navy, certainly have reason to be proud of the achieve ments of their vessels in the present war. Nor are the people of New Zealand unmindful of, or ungrateful for, ..he services that have been rendered by '.b.w: vessels in the protection of the chores of this dominion. Th?ir recognition of these services may indeed occasionally lead thern to the use of hyperbolic language. We are hardly prepared, however, to admit that an absolute test of duty is involved in the policy that is adopted by the overseas dominions in respect of naval defence. As long as they recognise fully their obligations to the Mother Country, and as long as they are willing and ready to bear an adequate share of the cost of naval defence, in addition to the whole cost of internal defence, there is room for legitimate difference of opinion as to the methods which they should adopt. The peculiar value of the local navy policy consists unquestionably in the sentiment that is associated with the sense of ownership, but its practical suitability to the circumstances of all the dominions cannot yet be said to be distinctly established. Moreover, the conception that the maintenance of one powerful Imperial navy, the control of which is centred in the Admiralty, represents the soundest form of naval policy is not to be lightly disregarded. It is the conception that has in the past appealed most strongly to the people of New Zealand, and it is supported by the knowledge that, when all is said and done, it is the Grand Fleet, which is even now demonstrating its might and its efficiency in the North Sea, that provides the most complete security for our shores and that renders it possible for the great overseas trade of the Empire to be carried on uninterruptedly even at a time when the Empire itself is engaged in the most stupendous war in history. It may be seriously suggested, however, that after all the question of the naval policy of the future is one which will in all probability settle itself at the conclusion of this war. The effects of the war will be tremendous, perhaps revolutionary, upon the naval dispositions of the Empire, and it seems to us to be a reasonable argument that in the meantime any conclusion on the subject of future policy would be premature.