IMPERIAL DEFENCE.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10517, 30 November 1912, Page 5

IMPERIAL DEFENCE.

United Press Association—By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. London, November 29, Daily Telegraph declares that the suggestion to reduce the British shipbuilding proportion on account of the aid given by the Dominions is so dishonourable and so fraught with danger for the future cooperation of the British people in naval defence, that if adopted we condemn ourselves as traitors in the eyes of the Empire. The journal recalls Mr Churchill’s admission that Britain at the average moment was 25 to 30 per cent, weaker than at the enemy’s selected moment, owing to ships undergoing repairs. It continues: After the Dominions have done their best, Britain will be a battle squadron short, owing to the progress of Germany, Austria and Italy. Even Mr Churchill only provides 25 battleships in Home waters with full crews, compared with Germany’s 29 fully commissioned battleships. At Britain’s average moment, older ships of the fifth and sixth squadrons have only half crews, and no British battleships in the Mediterranean to meet Austria’s six and Italy’s eight. At the average moment Britain is supreme neither in northern nor in southern waters. Defeat in the north will mean invasion, and defeat in the south will be the cutting off of half of_Britain’s grain supply.”