THE DREADNOUGHT OFFER

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11841, 3 May 1909, Page 2

THE DREADNOUGHT OFFER

DEFENDED BY THE PREMIER

A STATESMANLIKE SPEECH

WHAT BRITAIN'S DEFEAT WOULD

'MEAN

(Per Press A6sociation.)

INVERCAIuiILL, this • day. The action of the Government recently m otfering to tho British- authorities the gift of a Dreadnought on behalf of the people of the Dominion, saidi-.Sir Joseph Ward m his speech last night, was a subject m whioh a very wide interest was taken. One of the great Socialist leaders m England, Mr Blatchford, [editor of the Clarion, recently declared strongly for increasing and maintaing tlie strength of the British Navy, j He mentioned this only for tho purpose^ of showing tJiat a man on the spot wbo, no doubt, recognises what a calamity it would be to~the workers and other people of his own place, wasi m active sympathy with the proposal to make the Navy of the Old Country impregnable, .so tliat the'; speaker thought it only required further consideration and examination by even that section m our owii country who liad taken exception to what the Government had done to make it realise the, vital necessity of all parts of the Empire standing together to make its greatness unavailable. Apart altogether- from the pride m being a portion of the British Empire, what a calamity would, follow if by any unhappy circumstance m the tight for the supremacy of the seas Great Britain were to go under. Eirst of all the question of an indemnity would necessarily arise,— and he reminded his hearers that tho indemnity paid by France m the Pranco-Pi'ussian war amounted tp 200 millions sterling. The amount of the indemnity required from the British Empire certainly would not be .less than the amount paid by Prance, It really meant . that with the development that has taken place since then double the amount would be a comparatively small indemnity. Did' any of the people m these waters, who had shown their opposition to the proposal realise that it might mean oven the bartering and giving up of certain possessions of the British Empire itself. 'Why not New Zealand!? One shuddered at the thotfght of it. When anyone was talkifig'of the cost pf a Dreadnought, or two Dread,noughts, or even half a dozen, did 1 he foV a moment suppose, looking at it from a necessary point of view, that it would equal the cost of what the penalty would be to ug? 7 j

. Quite apart from this aspect of the matter, our very attachment to the Old World made it. essential that our trade route should be .kept open. . If it were not kept open what would be the fate of our farmers? The price of our products m England' was dependent upon it being, kept clear., What would happen to outj merchants undo traders,, whp were dependent upon . the , payment for their produce .from New Zealand) to enable them to pay for the .goods imported to our country,oand what would' happen tb the manufacttirers of goods within our Dominion ? r : v V■ «

Our very existence was dependent upon th*a strength of the British Empire, and to talk of building up a local navy, -to 7 talk of joining hands ' with Australia m the nature of a navy for our protection -would! be next to futile. Our , trUe- . course- was to show the world outside the* . moral: effect, of our determination td sink or ewim with the Lion Mother where fche protection 1 pf great British: interests were involved.

YThe constitutional aspect was a matter upon- which; Parliament? would be (July informed.^ 7The7 Executive had the power;, and it had the duty to act m any emergency, or _new situation, and Parliament was entitled to liave a full explanation of the Executive, and every member, of Parliament m his place m the House wa» entitled to use his. unfettered' judgment m the matter. To have asked individual members of Parliament before the. Government acted to conimifc themselves would have been most unfair- The .Executive must jtfct| and take the responsibility, and; !ri§k the subsequent ratification. ■-■ He might by telegtam have got a majority of members committed, o and thus tied their : hinds, but ; he pr^fßri'ed to leave them free and io follow, first, the constitutional course;- secondly, the courageous course; and, thirdly, the course which left all members ef Parliament untrammelled to deal with the' question. He had the greatest confidence m the people of the Dominion, m the members of Pari iament j -m the matter of the defence of the country, and' their loyal and practical support of the Old Land by their raising above party and) doing what he waa certain the people of New Zealand as a whole desired — at all costs to stand by the Qld Land that had stood' by ,them (md given them its protection for the last 70 years, oy ■ ■■/' "; V