COMMONWEALTH NAVY

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18542, 1 May 1922, Page 5

COMMONWEALTH NAVY

MINIMUM .FORCE

DEPARTING SBEEOH BY ADMIRAL DUMAREBQUE AUSTRALIANS SEVERELY CENfcURED. PreM Association—By Telegraph—Copyright SYDNEY, April 30. (Received April 30, at 11.50 p.m.) Rear-Admiral Dumaresq, the departing Commander of the Australian navy, in an interview, commented on the unpleasant foot that the Australians failed to realise the importance of preserving a minimum naval force which wquld preserve the soul of anything that could bo called a 'fleet and that must be preserved through bad times as well as good. If the total amount silent by tho sport-loving Australians on racing and other sports was assessed it would amount to Very many times the cost of a tactically efficient royal Australian fleet, xie could not help feeling that on his arrival in England he would feel ashamed of Australia on account of the attitude it had taken up over the navy. Speaking of the future, Admiral Dumaresq expressed the hope that the commonwealth navy would never be allowed to drop below three light cruisers and a small minimum of destroyers and submarines. The soul of anythin? like a navy could not bo maintained below that limit.

Referring to developments at the Genoa Conference, the Admiral urged the need of keeping up an adequate minimum naval toroe to secure a fair share of the world’s marsets and the raw material of the world, and, in the ease of Australia,, the freedom of tho seas to export her primary products. A. and N.Z. Cable.