NEW ZEALAND’S NAVAL POLICY.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11114, 2 December 1914, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND’S NAVAL POLICY.

[To The Editor. ] SIR,—In a letter published in your issue of 33rd inst. your correspondent in defending the Reform Party’s local navy policy, and pointing out the triumphs of the Australian Navy as a justification of its existence, has missed the main point chat must at the present moment be apparent to all, namely, that in the event of the British Navy oeiug defeated what would he the position of Australia and her navy. In reply I need only quote from Mr Churchill’s statement ou Naval Estimates, March, 1914:—“The situation in the Pacific-will he absolutely regulated by the decision in European waters. Two or three Australian Dreadnoughts, if brought into line in the decision theatre, might turn the scale and make victory not merely certain but complete. The same two or three Dreadnoughts in Australian waters would be useless the day after the defeat of the British Navy in home waters. Their assistance would only serve to prolong the agony without altering the coarse of events. Their effectiveness would have been destroyed by. events which had taken place on the other side of the globe, just as surely as if they had been sunk in battle. The Admiralty are bound to uphold and proclaim broad principles of unity in command and in stiategi3 conceptions, and cl concentration in the decisive theatre and for the decisive event. ’’ It may possibly he the opinion of some that H.M.S. New Zealand in the North Sea may have more influence in determining the future of Australia than her local navy can possess. The policy that sent H.M.S. New Zealand to the decisive theatre has strengthened the position there, whilst the local naval policy has weakened it in depleting it of the skilled ratings taken to supply the requirements of the local navy. —I am, etc., M. O. KEVBRN. Pakihikura, Nov. 28th, 1914.