Naval Responsibilities.

Southern Cross, Volume 10, Issue 10, 7 June 1902, Page 3

Naval Responsibilities.

IS THE EMPIRE AWAKE TO THEM?

Lord Charles Beresford says he made a mistake regarding his charges of unpreparedness against the Mediterranean fleet. This discounts the value of any opinion he may express in the same direction hereafter. Nevertheless enough has been said in many other quarters to justify curiosity if not suspicion, not only in regard to the Mediterranean fleet, but as to the up-to-dateness of the Navy altogether. It is one thing to put down figures showing that our Navy is stronger than any other two afloat, but the question is in how far they apply to calibre and number in conjunction. It is not sufficient to have strong skips in a case like ours without many ships, and it is useless having many ships unless they are also up to the average of those they may be called upon to fight. Again, it is wholly misleading to dwell altogether on the fact that the British Navy is numerically stronger than France and Russia combined, when the chief question to decide is the relative work which each navy would be expected to do in the event of trouble. The chief strength of the Russian Navy, for instance, is to be found in the smallness of what it has to defend at sea and the impregnableness of the Empire, generally speaking, on the water as well as on the land side. France is not in such a happy position, but she is still immeasurably better off than Great Britain, whose glory of a scattered Empire in times of peace may prove a conundrum when war turns the intervening oceans into the battle grounds for her harassing. She has not only herself to watch, she has Canada, India, Africa, and Australia, her innumerable islands all over the world, her Malay peninsula, and her Chinese strongholds and ‘ keys.’ As anyone will acknowledge, it is an enormous responsibility, calling for the most earnest consideration and the most self-sacrificing devotion on the part of every outpost which shares in the common risk, if not actually danger. In this connection it is necessary, one would think, to tot up the Navy in more ways than one, as if the British Navy is as 7 to 5 is against Russia and France combined, as is claimed, and the responsibilities are as 20 to 1 respectively at the same time, the position Is not in our favour but against us. In such circumstances the “ Navy ” is indeed asleep, but far more deep in their day-dreams are the great outlying possessions which, with enormous exposed coastlines, assailable at, a thousand different points, potter about with extensive military systems, and leave their naval protection practically to chance. Mr Chamberlain has sounded a note that the Empire has enemies ou all sides at once, and if this is so, where is the possible battleground for the integrity of the flag but the sea, which is at once the highway for intercommunion between the various British nations, and the pathway of their trade and commerce.