DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE.

Otago Witness, Issue 3036, 22 May 1912, Page 32

DEFENCE OF THE EMPIRE.

THE WARREGO TRIALS. TO THE EDITOR.

I Sir, —It seems to me that the press of Australia has been shirking its duty in reference to the building and trials of this ship, which is referred to in almost every metropolitan or country paper which one • picks up in New South Wales as the " first battleship built in the Commonwealth." The electors of the Commonwealth who are responsible for the cost and maintenance, as well as for tine policy which entails the necessity of maintaining an Australian fleet, are thus kept in almost absolute ignorance •of their commitments and risks by a system of make-believe —a play too silly for children over 10 years old. If.my information is correct —and I am sure it is,—the Warrego was built in England or Scotland by British shipwrights, engineers, and designers, trained for generations in such work, and having the best facilities in the I world. Hor engines, guns, and machinery were all built in the same place, and put together by the same class of men. Then the whole thing was taken to pieces at an enormous cost and shipped to Sydney, to be put together again at the Government dock, so that we could, puhlish a palpable lie, aS we have been doing, by saying that we built her.. The keel was laid with much self-adulation and many lying speeches, and now, after a lapse of time greater than required to build the ship in the first place, | a few hesitating and fearful trials of some parts .of her machinery are being made in such a way that defects and shortcomings cannot become known to the electors of the Commonwealth, who have to pay the money that has been wasted and suffer, the responsibility for inefficiency.. The question whether we ought to havo a locally-oon-trolled fleet or not is a difficult one, because if the contest for sea-power comes off within the next 20 or 30 years, before the Commonwealth has had time to increase her population or resources, the Australian fleet will certainly be a negligible quantity, of no more use than the proverbial stick in the porridge pot. Our destiny will be settled by the battles to be fought in European waters, and our first notice of defeat will be a cable from Berlin announcing the cession of Australia to Germany, and tine appointment of a German Governor to take charge of our affairs. If the building and manning of the Warrego and our two other little ships be any criterion, the Australian fleet when completed will have cost at least six times as much as it need have done, and that means that in efficiency for defence we will only get for our money and our effort one-sixth of what we might have . had, taking it that each locally-built ship is as good as if it had been turned out of a British shipyard complete and ready for action after testing, and that assumption is certainly wrong. There is no hint of trying the Warrego with her full battery power in operation, and until that trial is | made the taxpayers of Australia have no 1 guarantee that she has any efficiency at all l as a fighting machine. Judging by reports 1 current as to the many difficulties that have arisen in merely assembling the parts and | riveting up, it seems probable that if such a trial were made she would shake herself i to pieces on the first discharge of her ! guns. . ',, i Now, what I want to suggest is that the Warrego should bo handed over,to the admiral of the British local squadron, and that he should be asked to make a complete trial of her guns and machinery, as we cannot expect to get an unbiassed report from those who are responsible for any defects that may be shown. What we want is the " truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," both as to cost and efnciencv. and I for one object very strongly to the silly " make-believe " which is being ladled out to the electors of Australia for political or party purposes. Four or five years ago, in my address as president of tho Pastoralists' Association of New South Wales, I urged very strongly that tho proper course for Australia and tlhe other dominions of the Empire to take was to tax themselves to the same amount per capita as that imposed on tho British taxpayer for naval defence, and then use the money to build first class ships of tho latest and most efficient type, to be handed over to the Lords of the Admiralty for use wherever they wore .most required. In that way it seemed to me that we could really and at once assist effectively in our own defence and in the defence of the Empire. The suggestion was published in the London Times, and very strongly supported in the same paper bv the late Sir John Columb, who, after Captain Mahan, was a leading authority on " sea-power.' Our Commonwealth politicians (unfortunately. I thinkj adopted the rival policy of a little local fleet of little fifth or sixth class 6hips of no use for our defence or as an assistance to the British fleet, which has defended us hitherto. Now, wo have more taxation than that required for the first scheme (still jTrowintr). and no prospect of even a little efficiency- Surely the time has arrived for reconsideration ! We would save money now and pain in efficiency for defence by dropping childish make-believe and scraping our little toy fleet at once. —I am, etc., W. E. Abbott. "Murrulla," Wingen, N.S.W., April 26, 1912. P.S. —New Zealand has reason for congratulation in that has escaoed t!he Serboniaai bogr into which the Commonwealth is slipping.—W. E. A.