ARMS AND EMPIRE

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18068, 20 April 1933, Page 7

ARMS AND EMPIRE

NAVY LEAGUE’S APPEAL MASTERY OF SEAS DISARMAMENT DENOUNCED

Britain’s disarmament policy and the danger it presented to the Empire were the subject of speeches by officials of the Navy League in the Wellington Town Hall on Tuesday night. The meeting was part of the programme of “Navy Week.” Mr. J. T Grose, president of the Wellington branch of the Navy League, set out the objects of the league, its origin, and the work it was perform ng. Its purpose was to urgie the maintenance c I a navy strong enough to keep and to hold the splendid heritage that the navy of bygone generations had won. “We have only to look down the ages to see how empires of the past have risen to greatness, have had their day, and teased to be,” Mr. Gross said. A navy strong enough to safeguard the nation and protect its trade routes is essential to our Empire, and to support endeavor for such a navy is one of the foremost aims of the league. “We of the Navy League fully comprehend that should our mastery of the highways of the seas be wrested from us then our great Empiro must inevitably fall into decay and crumble away,” he said. “That is why our league has formed an unbroken netwoi k of membership throughout the length and breadth of the Empire. That is why the voice of the league is never silent.

ENLIGHTENED OPINION “Tlio desire of the league is to create such a force of enlightened public opinion a S to give a clear inancuite to, and strengthen the hands of, any Government* winch fearlessly adopts a sane and far-sighted policy on the all-important subject of national and Empire naval defence,” said Mr. Grose. “The Navy .League does not oppose a measure of disarmament so long as the disarmament is universal and not unilateral to the detnment of our Empire. “Britain has since 1914 reduced lie>' fleet by 4/ per cent., while the fleet oi tne U.S.A. has been increased by 29 per cent, and that of Japan has been increased by 37 per cent., he continued. “The present hirst Lord oi the Admiralty, fair Bolton hiyres-Monsell, speaking in the House oi Commons m NovemOei, stated that the personnel of the British Navy was 91,010 men; this is 16,00 u lower than • that of tiie United States, and only 11,(XX) more than tnat of Japan. ADEQUATE AIR FORCE “The day has gone when a navy could he considered as sufficient unto itself at sea, and this means that an efficient and adequate air force is becoming even more essential to co-operate with the navy, he saad. “The necessity lor power m tne air is no less important for the outposts of the Empire than for a Mother Country. The Navy League branches ol New Zealand made representations to the Government last year, with the result that another Fancy HI F has been ordered for co-operation with the navy A. R. Atkinson gave an account of the British Navy and deplored the fait ti.at there had been so much unilateral disarmament. It was up to the Dominions, ho said, to maintain what our forefathers had done, or make way fox somebody else. Due of the objects of the meeting was o spur public conscience to a realisation of the vital importance of national defence, said Mr. F. Ferry. The first line of detente of the British Empire was the Royal Navy. Great 'Britain had cut her defences almost to the bone, but other nations had not followed suit. Mr. Perry said he was not an alarmist or a pessimist, but he declined to shut his eyes to facts and if the naval programme were not speeded up he would view the fiture of the British Empire with the gravest apprehension. Britain was the only nation in the world to whom naval defence meant daily bread. “With the loss of that goes the Empire,” said Mr. Perry. He concluded by stating that people travelling in foreign ships were virtually scuttling the British Mercantile Marine, and spoke of the unfairness of competit on by America against Britain.