THE NAVY

Southland Times, Issue 19513, 12 May 1922, Page 5

THE NAVY

BURDEN OF EXPENDITURE THE DOMINION’S SHAKE POSITION OF NEW ZEALAND. x (Special to the Times.) WELLINGTON, May 11. The question of dominion contributions to the support of the Imperial Navy wm raised in a cablegram published yesterday Lord Lee, lecturing at the Royal Colonial Institute in London, is reported to have said that so far the dominions had not assisted Britain to bear the crushing burden of naval expenditure. Britain was “staggering along hoping that the dominions would open their hearts and their pockets before it was too late.” Sir James Allan was present at the lecture, and the cablegram states that he agreed that the dominions in the past had not taken their fair share of the burden. He claimed, however, that New Zealand was bearing her full share. The position from the point of view of the New Zealand Government is clear enough. Mr Massey stated that at the last Imperial Conference in October, 1921, the members of that Conference accepted the principle that the various States of the Empire should share the cost of maintaining the Empire Navy, and they placed on record the following resolution: “That while recognising the necessity of co-operation among the various portions of the Empire to provide such naval defence as may prove to be essential for security, and while holding that equality with the naval strength of any other Power is a minimum standard for that purpose, this Conference is of opinion that the method and expense of such co-operation are matters for the final determination of the several Parliaments concerned, and that any recommendations thereon should be deferred until after the coming conference on disarmament.” The Imperial Conference went a little further than that, since it approved of the construction of four battleships on the understanding that they would be “Empire ships,” to be paid for by the whole Empire. Mr Massey mentioned this point when he was reporting to the House of Representatives. He said: “Mr Lloyd George told us as representatives of the overseas dominions that the United Kingdom could not go on bearing the cost of the Navy as she had done hi the past, and that she must have help from the overseas dominions, and we agreed. The shares will be agreed to at the next Conference—the different shares of the different parts of the Empire.” The decisions of the Washington Conference have changed the situation materially since the Empire’s Prime Ministers met in London last year. The building programme approved by the Prime Ministere has been cut down, and the British Navy is being reduced like the navies of the United States, France, and Japan in accordance with the terms of the Four Power Pact. 'The position is easier than it was when the Prime Ministers met last year, and there has not been any official suggestion that the arrangement made then should not stand. The financial aspect of the Empire’s naval defence question will be taken up again when the next Imperial Conference is held. That cannot be this year; it may be next year. New Zealand in the meantime is maintaining the light cruiser Chatham and the training ship Philomel, and is still making payments of interest and sinking fund In respect of the battle cruiser New Zealand. The vote for naval defence in the last financial year was £342,587, and the public accounts just issued by the Prime Minister show that the expenditure under this heading during the year was greater by £245,825 than the expenditure for the preceding year.