THE CANADIAN NAVY

Otago Witness, Issue 3017, 10 January 1912, Page 25

THE CANADIAN NAVY

BILL DEFERRED TILL NEXT YEAR. OTTAWA, January 6. The Government will not introduce a Navy Bill until next session, and in the meantime it will hold consultations with the Admiralty. Mr Borden, the new Canadian Prime Minister, announced in the Ottawa House in November the abandonment of the scheme of Sir \V. Laurier’s Government for a separate Canadian Navy. At the Imperial Defence Conference in 1909 Sir \\. Lauricr declined to take the coin se ,1 .1 !> v v _ • I oi l \l jtralia, the former offering a generous contribution to the Imperial J-.xchequcr for the iM.Tcing of the Pacin'- s -s. .• ;-.-t (l>,. latter t e~e~io a t - I ' : .i, in war time would bo a part of the British Navy. On behalf of Canada, Sir \V Laurier decided to areata a local navy, the men of which should be trained in Canada, the ships of which should be built in Canada. It was proposed to build four cruisers of limited size and half a dozen tornedo craft. The Canadian Government took over from the Imperial authorities without payment the dockyards at Halifax and Esquimalt. and opened negotiations for the creation of dry docks and shipbuilding plant at Levis (opposite Quebec) and at St. John. New Brunswick.

3inoo th'fi projont was launched the Canadian Government has purchased two obsolescent British cruisers—the Niobo and

Rainbow—for uso as training vessels for lower-deck ratings, and has founded a college for tire education of naval cadets. In his statement Mr Borden said that the proposals of the late Government called for an expenditure of £10,000,000, spread over a period of 10 years. A fleet had been planned which would bo useless as a fighting force, and would bo quite obsolete by th<> time it was completed. It would not be wise to proceed with such a useless expenditure, and he intimated that the Government would stop it. It thought that the whole, question should be reconsidered. In the meantime, th© Government would endeavour to ascertain what were the conditions confronting the Empire.