Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING GISBORNE, TUESDAY. MARCH 21, 1911. MR BALFOUR AND NAVAL DEFENCE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXVII, Issue 12410, 21 March 1911, Page 4

Poverty Bay Herald PUBLISHED E VER Y E VENING GISBORNE, TUESDAY. MARCH 21, 1911. MR BALFOUR AND NAVAL DEFENCE.

i One of the most notable. contributions (o the debate m the Houbo of Oommont bn the naval estimates was -made by Mi Balfour, leader of the Opposition, whose speech waa described as arousing intense interest. m supporting the pro'pOßals of the Government m regard to naval defence, Mr Balfour spoke as a states man who places the safety of the Empire high .above party. The 1 increased build ing programme outlined by Mr McKenna, First Lord of the. Admiralty, tha hearty approval given to it by Mr Balfour, and the overwhelming defeat ol the amendment which was moved, against th© sum asked to be voted, is the best answer that could be given to the huge additions Germany has recently niaue ana contemplates maiuug to her fleet oi battleships. hoy several years past Mr Balfour ha* sounded a note of warning that the two-Power standard was not being maintained by Great Britain; ana that up to three months ago, according to the Government programme, out superiority m Dreadnoughts m, 1913 over tho next greatest naval Power would be only four Dreadnoughts. The margin m British strength had never, m his opinion, sunk as low as that during the last hundred years. Ho regarded the position as dangerous, and said that no one could give close attention to tho subject without serious misgiving and- alarm. Ihe necessity for maintaining our -supremacy at sea has become more apparent than ever since the discussion . upon the Declaration of London. Up to recent years England's insular position was regarded as a great additional scurity, but modern discoveries have considerably changed the conditions. The vital importance to England of maintaining an uninterrupted oversea trade' has become quite clear, for she has no neutral ports through which her food supplies and raw materials can reach her; and m the ev«nt of the breaking-down of her first line of defence even, for a short period, England might be starved into submission. Mr Balfour has never wavered m his advocacy of a vigorous, naval policy— that we should set to work to I make up for lost time during recent years, and that nothing should be allowed^ to stand m the way .of our maintaining unquestioned superiority at aea. In Mr Balfour's opinion, England's peril is starvation, , not invasion :■ that if every man m Britain Mas trained to arms she could be beaten without the firing of a shot on shore by the cutting off of even a portion of her supplies of food. .Admiral Wilson, who succeeded ' Sir John Fisher as First Sea Lord, says that Britain's defence is twofold; firstly, by seagoing fleets; and, secondly, by mobile mosquito craft, including 17D destroyers and numerous torpedo boats and submarines, stretching from Dundee to Dover ond Devonport. He contends that if all the ships operating m Home waters were m wireless communication, they could be,, so disposed as to make invasion practically impossible. Mr Balfour is prepared to go to almost any £xtremity to maintain our sea power. "Britain's supremacy at sea," he said, m » a glowing ' peroration to a recent speech, — 'four power to carry out all our Imperial and national duties — that is a thing which 'we will not, what6v«r it costs us, abandon; and to our. last shilling, to our last man, we will see that the obligations of Empire, • the obligations that we owe to our colonies, the obligations we owe to ourselves and those who come after' us— that these obligations/ are ones which nothing— too party advantage, no domestic difference, no quarrels, however deeply they may go to the root of society — will for one moment allow n? to neglect." Tho Vigorous prosecution of tho nnyal programme of the Government, stimulnted by the voluntary offers of the oversea dominions, has not only already given a feeling of greater security throughout

the Empire, but it will do much towards convincing foreign Powers that the nation is determined to maintain the two-Power standard at sea. as the settled naval policy of Great Britain.