H.M.A.S. AUSTRALIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19146, 14 April 1924, Page 6

H.M.A.S. AUSTRALIA.

The fate of many a notable ship of war has been sealed by the stipulations of the Washington Treaty. In the British Navy the “scrapping” has been particularly extensive. For the balancing of reflections on the waste of man's handiwork that are thus suggested we have to contemplate the furtherance of efforts to restrict competition in naval armaments, and doubtless, also, there are some stern practical considerations to be borne in mind, To a ship, be it said; mankind always attributes qualities beyond those possessed by a mere piece of mechanism, however elaborate. Thus round a warship and her career most readily gather associations, some of which become historic and imperishable. The passing of H.M.A.S. Australia, as recorded in our cablegrams this morning, has naturally stirred Australian sentiment. Efforts were made to have the great battle-cruiser preserved as a national memorial, or, failing that, as a. floating hostel for immigrants. The very practical suggestion was made also that the hull would form an excellent basis for a breakwater. But the Federal Government was inexorable in its quotation of the provisions of the Washington Pact. The warship might have been broken up, it is true—sent to the shipbreakers even as H.M.S. New Zealand was not long since—but. apparently that would not have been an economic proposition in the Commonwealth. So with full naval honours, colours proudly flying, flower-bedecked, and a royal salute awaking the echoes far and near, the Australia lias been sent as expeditiously as possible to an oozy ocean bed. . The battle-cruiser which served the Empire so well in the strenuous war years had lagged superfluous on the stage. Less ignoble perhaps a sudden and dramatic finish than the slow corrosion of dismantled neglect or piecemeal disintegration under the shipbreaker’s remorseless hammer!