HANDS ACROSS THE SEA

Otago Witness, Issue 3043, 10 July 1912, Page 67

HANDS ACROSS THE SEA

By Professor F. W. Hasi.am

If one takes a chart of the world on Mercator'a Projection, and examines the great water highways along which the commerce of the British Empire, finds its way for the support and maintenance of us who live under the British flag, one notices at once throe great ocean areas, across each of which there is a network of these highways. There are the Indian Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Atlantic. There was a time when the British navy was supreme in all these waters, and was able to protect the commerce of the Empire everywhere against all possible enemies. But this is no longer possible. The foreign powers of the East have developed enormously, and will develop still further This makes it more necessary than it has ever been that the English navy should bo free to act in Eastern waters, such as the Indian Ocean and the Pacific.

But simultaneously with this development of power in the East the European powers of the West have been augmenting their military and naval strength so greatly that, instead of being more free to act in Eastern waters, the strength of the English navy is now more tlia.n ever fettered to Western seas, such as the North Sea and the Mediterranean. This leaves the British commerce of the Eastern seas,. and the British dominions oversea —Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, and India —without naval protection—quite defenceless against any powerful hostile navy. Whatever forces they have are quite insufficient for their defence without being supplemented with ships and men from the Old Country. And as we have just seen, the recent augmentation of military and naval power by European nations makes it almost impossible for the Old Country to give aid with certainty. A hostile combination, for example, of Germany and Austria against England would make it absolutely necessary for England to use all her ships stationed in European waters and leave none of them free to act in defence of Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, or to protect the great highways of commerce between herself and those countries —those highways which are the very arteries, so to speak, of the Empire's hfoblood. Indeed, it might become necessary to withdraw' some of the ships that are at present stationed in Eastern waters. Only a little while ago England was on the verge of being exposed to an attack by such a combination of foreign powers. This would leave all the oversea dominions and their trade at the mercy of the cruisers of these hostile powers, or at the mercy of anv other power which might choose to take advantage of their weakness. When we say any other power, we do not necessarilv mean great powers like Japan or America. Even minor powers, like Holland or Chili, possess naval force sufficient to make things very unpleasant for us in New Zealand if they wished, in the absence of help from England. And if Japan chose to raise the _ question of Asiatic immigration and insist upon our admitting Japanese and Chinese freely to our country, and giving them the right to vote for our members of Parliament, we could not possibly resist such a demand with success. We should find ourselves—-

we, an English people—in the desperately humiliating position of being dictated to by a nation of yellow Asiatics as to the racial purity of out country on which we pride ourselves. Could anything be more falling to the white man's pride of birth,? 'he question then is: "What is to be done?" When one realises the danger it is quite clear that something must be done. Not only so, but it must be done at once if we are to be safe. v ,\en now it may be too late. " What thou doest do quickly " war, never more applicable than it is now to us who have lived in a fools' paradise of well-fed security under the protection of the English navy for the last 50 years. It is true that we are beginning to wake up. Australia has invited the advice of a naval expert, Admiral Henderson, to tell her what to do, and, in accordance with his recommendation, has decided to build a fleet of her own. But, even if that fleet could spring ready-built, ready-armed, and readymanned from the 'waves of the sea at the touch of some enchanter's wand,, of what use would it be? Look at the enormous expanse of ocean again, with all its network of highways of commerce; look at the Pa-cinc, "with a great war-fleet of Japan on one side and of America on the other, ready to scour it from shore to shore, and consider the strength of the new Australian navy. A few cruisers and destroyers! Truly, the phrase " tin-pot navy " is hardly undeserved. Besides, how long will it be before even this " tin-pot navy' is ready? Admiral Henderson says 22 years. ' Are we to suppose that other powers will be so kind as to wait for 22 years. The idea needs only to be stated to appear ludicrous. Once more, then, what is to he done?

It is quite clear that we are face to face with a great question, probably the great question of our national life. On the answer we give to this question depends whether we shall develop into a free, independent, and brave and glorious nation, or whether we shall be content to drag on an inglorious and servile existence as the appanage of some foreign power which will protect us, no doubt, but will exact a heavy price for that protection. That price will bo the surrender of our liberty, of our right to govern ourselves as Britons. We shall have to take outlaws from our protectors; we shall no longer be able to make them for ourselves. We shall pay taxes for the benefit not of ourselves, but of our foreign protector and ruler. Ou- position, in fact, will be just the same as that of the Outlanders under the Kruger regime in the Transvaal, —we shall have no votes and no share in our own government, but we shall have the privilege of paying heavy taxes and of being compelled to serve in the army of our foreign protector, possibly against our own Mother Country. Let nobody think this picture is exaggerated. We have no reason to think that Germanv, for instance, would deal with us differently from the way in which she has dealt with Alsace and Lorraine. She has flooded these countries with German immigrants who have been allowed to acquire land on specially easy terms; she has filled the civil service and the educational service with Germans; she has imposed the German language upon the inhabitants—no other language is taught or allowed to be spoken by "boys and girls in State schools —she has compelled the men to serve in the German army and to wear the German uniform, even when they are on leave at their homes, so that many of them, when they do get leave, refuse to show themselves abroad in daylight or to be seen in this detested dress. There is no reason to think that we should be treated otherwise if our country of New Zealand were seized by a foeign invader while the Old Country' was unable to assist us, as she easily might be. Here we stand thereat the parting of the ways. On the other hand is self-denial, sacrifice, hardship, danger, liberty, and the name of Enghtihmen. On the other hand is sloth, comfort, money-making, protection, slavery. Which path shall we choose, and how shall we choose it? There is little doubt about the path, of course. If we are brave men and women, and worthy of the name of England, we shall choose the path to Freedom, even if we have to die in the last ditch before we ever get there. But the ways and means thereto must bo carefully thought out. Wo in New Zealand, and in all the other oversea Dominions of the Empire, have now arrived at the parting of the ways. The Mother Country, it is true, still considers that she is bound to defend her children " with the last penny and her last man," and up to the present time she has nobly fulfilled her obligation. She saved Canada from the French, and made it possible for- Canada to bo what she is now This she did at the expense of an enormous addition to her own national debt so that for this liberty of Canada the English taxpayer is still paying heavily. She saved South Africa from the Boers and their allies, at the expense of more than £200.000.000 and thousands of lives of Englishmen. And for the privilege of doing this the English taxpayer is still paying. Not only so, but the Mother Country has actually compensated the South African colonist for expenses incurred by him in defending himself. Natal, we believe, is the only South African colony which has refused to accept this compensation. What country in the history of the world was ever known to have a'Motherland so generous 7 Not only does she spend her money and her life in defending her far-off children, but from her own hearths and homes, already heavily burdened, she draws additional taxation to recompense these poor children for their losses incurred in defending themselves. Truly, she is well named the Motherland. No other land has ever been so fond a mother to her children. But this is no longer possible. With the best intentions in the world, the wearv Titan can no longer earn' "the too vast "orb " of her Every English man, woman, and child is taxed at "the rate of about £2 a head for the protection of the Empire by the navy; and it is now quite evident that this protection is utterly insufficient. Wo

cannot for very shame endure that the toiling thousands of England should tax themselves still more for our benefit. And even if we would accept the boon, it is impossible for the Mother Country, rich as she is, to increase the burden of taxation for this purpose. Once more then—what shall we do, and how shall we do it ? Shall we quit ourselves like men and be strong and free, or shall we contentedly sink to the position of a prosperous, protected, insignificant country like Belgium in Europe, and become an alien to our mother's children. There is but one answer fit for Englishmen and Englishwomen. Fight, we must; suffer, we ohall; die, we may; but free we will be.

Well, then, how can we best eet our houses in order to fight. Taki ■ -•-> more the chart of the world, and lo these great water spaces covered with highways of commerce—the Indian Ocean, tho Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic. In every single one of these we must be supreme—or, if' not supreme, yet so strong that none is stronger. To achieve this we must ]jcst'ess a powerful navy in each of these oceans, apart from and beside the Imperial Navy, but under the same flag and with the same object—namely, reciprocal defence. It is idle and useless to attempt to determine with nicenees of calculation the particular value to the Empire of this or that Dominion or colony or dependency. We are all members of the same family: the honour of the least is the honour of all: united we stand, and "none shall make us rue."

To begin, then, with the Indian Ocean. The question of self-defence at sea has for some time been discussed in Indian newspapers,, and lias- received considerable crapporfc. In August, 1910. the Civil and Military Gazette of Lahore published a scheme for a naval force to be maintained by India and the Crown Colonies of the * orth Indian Ocean, as part of a reciprocal system of Imperial defence in the East. It was made pretty clear that this combination of North Indian Crown Colonies could maintain without straining their resources a battle fleet, with Ceylon or the Straits for a base, administered by an Indian Admiralty under the Home uithorities, strong enough, in the words of the writer, "to revolutionise the whole system of naval defence east of Suez. You may ask, perhaps, how does thus scheme affect .Australia and New Zealand ? Well, it not only gives us a lead which we should be ashamed not to follow, but if you look at the chart again you will see that it would be of great value in protecting our commercial highways on the Indian Ocean. So valuable, indeed, to us would be such a battle fleet in Indian waters that we on our part might make this scheme of defence reciprocal by undertaking in case of need to reinforce the Imperial garrisons in - the Crown colonies. In the cape of another mutiny or an attack upon India, we might send troops to aid in return for protection afforded by the Indian squadron. India and South Africa- would also be able mutually to reinforce each other in cast of need, for the presence of this Indian squadron would give us the certain command of the Indian Ocean without which it would be impossible to send Indian troops to Natal, as waG done in the Boer war, for instance. But we have not yet suggested any scheme for the Racific, which concerns us particularly in New Zealand. For purposes of defence, if you look at the chart you will see that we may reckon the Pacific and the South Atlantic as one. On the one side we have Australia and ; New Zealand; on the other South Africa, and no less interested would be Canada, ! with her growing cities and ports on the j North Pacific. Now any single one of j these Dominions is unable to build and maintain a battle fleet which would com- i mand these oceans; and if they tried to do so we have seen that it would take 22 years to complete, and probably be snuffed out of existence by some foreign .'owt;i- before ever it was completed. But what is to prevent Australia, New Zealand. Canada, and South Africa combining to build or get built for them, as uiickly as possible, battle fleet strong enough to command the Pacific and South Atlantic waters? This was the suggestion made by Sir Joseph Ward at the Imperial Conference. Such a fleet, would have to be composed of about 25 battleships, or the equivalent thereof, with destroyers, etc., in propoition. How are we to get such a battle fleet, you may_ ask ? How did the hard-wc-king people of England get their splendid navy? They got it by denying themselves, bv taxing themselves, by voluntary enlistment of themselves to become sailors and man this fleet. And this they did not only for themselves, but to protect us while we were young and struggling colonies. Tn our helpless condition we were a temptation to every powerful nation in the world. But between them and us stood the fleet of England, built by English -taxpavers, manned by English sailors, and dared the whole world to lay a finger on us or interfere with the freedom of her children. Surely it is time for us, out of very shame, 'to do for ourselves what our Mother Country has so long done for us. If the great mass of English toilers will cheerfully tax themselves about 52 a head every year, would it be too much for us who pride ourselves on our prosperity and wealth and freedom to tax ourselves as much as 10s a head ? If we would only do this, the difhculty is practically at an end, as you may see. There are in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa from 13 to 17 millions of white people. Take it at 13 millions. Sir Joseph Ward suggested that we 13 millions of white people, who dwell in the oversea Dominions, should borrow '£50.000.000, and get built for us in England a fleet of 25 Dreadnoughts, or the equivalent thereof. It would take about five years instead of 22 years to build this fleet. And if we all formed ourselves into a monster Navy League, with only half the Enthusiasm that Germans show for their Navy League, which has more than a million members, and contributed 10s per head every year, wo should raise an annual revenue of more than

£6,500.000; for there are really more than 13,000,000 of us, and our numbers are rapidly increasing. Sir Joseph Ward, whose financial ability is certainly undoubted, pointed out that this sum at 6 per cent, would provida for interest and sinking fund, and repay the debt in 15 years, and would have enough over to renew the ships as they became obsolete, and pay for the upkeep of the fleet. But how about the sailors for this fleet? That is another piece of self-sacrifice which it is our sacred duty to undertake. We oversea Dominions must provide among ourselves something like 13,000 trained sailors to man this fleet. It will not do only to give money, but we must give personal service. We must give our time, our work, and, if need be, our lives to create and maintain a glorious maritime Empire of the English raee over all the world. If we do not do this, what will be the result? Why. the ships will be Australian, Canadian, New Zealand. South African, but the sailors will be the sailors of England. We shall bo paying the sailors of England to defend our homes and hearths, our women and children, and our fat and faineant selves, instead of manning our own ships ourselves with our own brave sons and defending ourselves. If this is so, we must begin even now, even before the ship 3 are begun, to train sailors to man them, even as we have begun to train soldiers. The time is short enough. Five years" training while the fleet is building will turn out men as " leading seamen," but even five years' training will not make a man a seaman {runner; and when the day comes it will be the man behind the gun that will win that day for us: not the guns or the ships. You will say, perhaps. " Who is to control this fleet?" Let that question wait—let «s build and man the fleet, and in five years' time the question of control can be settled. Once more look at the chart. Imagine three great invincible fleets manned by oailors of our own English race; one Home fleet, one Indian fleet, one Pacific fleet; threo of the greatest fleets in the world, and all these three not three, but one. All the way across that chart of the world from the North Sea to New Zealand and to the Capo of Good Hope an unbroken armada of English battleships under the old flag; a power.so strong as to make war simply a hopeless undertaking for our enemies; an armed Imperial police that will keep the peace of the_ world. We have gone down to the sea in ships and done business in many waters. We have traded and grown rich on every shore that is washed by the waves of the sea. Let us remember that " richease oblige." Let us give an account of oui riches to the world wherein we have been successful adventurers. What better or nobler justification can wo give of the gold we have won than this, te enforce the Pax Britannica wherever thi flag of England flies. Merchant adventurers! Merchant adventurers ! What shall be your profit in the mighty days to be ? England ! England ! England ! England ! God's free Kingdom and the Glory of the Sea !