NEW ZEALAND'S NAVY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 288, 28 April 1913, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND'S NAVY.

LOCAL OK IMPERIAL? MR. ALLEN AND SIR J. G. WARD. DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW. London. March 14. Important speeches on the burning topic of sectional navies versus an Empire navy were made at Prince's Restaurant on Wednesday evening, at a dinner given by the Liberal Colonial Club.

Sir Joseph Ward was invited to preside over the function, at which the Hon. J. A. Allen, the guest of honor, was asked to open a discussion, on '•lmperial Defence."

Mr. Allen said New Zealand had faced the problem of making a direct contribution to the. Navy, and in' doing that she had, lie believed, acted wisely. Canada would probably do the same. But this was only the beginning of the task of facing the naval problem of the Empire. It was not a permanent policy. What they had to do in these outer portions of the Empire was to determine that policy. For his part he did not think that we could get from the oversea dominions the full measure of the required sacrifice in securing the naval defence of the whole- Empire except by recognising the national sentiment of the dominions, and by adopting the principle of patriotic interest by which the dominions were animated. Thus it was that the Australian Commonwealth had adopted the policy of building a fleet called their own fleet, but not for their purposes alone. He had been in close contact within the last few years with the Australian authorities, and he, was prepared to say that Australia was not building a navy for selfish purposes. Australia had simply been using the sentiment of sacrifice for the purpose of ultimately building up an Imperial navy. He thought that was the policy which would have to be adopted ultimately by all the dominions. He did not care whether the dominions began by building ships or by contributing in any other form to the naval defence, of the Empire, so long as they all acted in unison with some intelligent plan which.would permit of effective cooperation in Imperial interests, and consistent with the larger policy of bringing the whole of these various naval units together again.

Of course the formulation of such a large policy was one of grave difficulty, but he did not agree that it was an insoluble difficulty. It was no use building these separate units except with a definite mutual understanding of what these unite were for, and that ultimate purpose must be not only for the defence of the separate parts of the Empire, but of the Empire as a whole. (Cheers). COST OF LOCAL NAVIES. Sir Joseph Ward, in closing the discussion, Said he was bound to express what had long been in his mind—the fear that there was not one of the oversea countries which would be for many years to come able to provide a local, efficient navy that was going to be of sufficient service in times of stress either to the Empire or to the oversea dominion herself, without doing; immense injury to herself. For what was the position of the new countries? There was not one of them who had,more than established half of the public utility services that the people required, and whether they liked it or not, they could not carry «n side by side a solid, practical policy of naval construction, and ,at the same time carry out the great internal developments which the people of those countries demanded, „ PLEA FOR EMPIRE NAVY.

Unlike Mr. Allen, he differed entirely from those who urged sectional navies. He regarded it as a fatal mistake. While ,Ue. believed strongly that there should be a well-defined system in operation for purposes of naval defence in all parts of -the Empire, he did not believe that any portion of the Empire, was going to achieve the best and attain the strongest position by having a division of navies, when, after all, their ultimate continuance as nations was essentially dependent upon the preservation of the British Isles. In the event of anything untoward occurring with the British Isles, it would be a comparatively' easy undertaking for any enemy w..0 was victorious to meet and defeat the local navies of the Empire, even if they were all brought together for temporary purposes of defence.' The local navies could not hope to be able to stand against an enemy that had been successful in hitting against the heart of the Empire. His view was that every portion of the Empire must in a great matter such as that, decide upon its own course of action. He said clearly that he was not speakiiig against the Australian, policy, but how a population of 5,000,000 was going to spend £4,500,000 per annum on a local fleet he did not know. It was, in his fleet, a Herculean task. A PER CAPITA CONTRIBUTION.

In this matter of sectional navies, as against the great Empire navy, lie wanted them to realise what it was that England was doing. The Mother Country was giving per capita of her people more than double—yes, move than four times as much—as any one,;pf,.throve?;.: seas dominions. He urged that the overseas dominions should give an equal per capita contribution for the purposes of defence, which would mean a material* reduction in the financial obligations of the people of the Home Country. If they put that amount at 10s per head, what would not"the Empire be able to do? Instead of two or three Dread-, noughts, they would he able to,build a fleet of: fifty, and, Australia, if she wished, could then have a fleet at her own I doors, provided at less than half the cost,, which she. will now-spend. , Sir Joseph thought if only the respoii-; sible men in the respective countries, would agree to sit dovyn at,a roundtable conference with the British authorities they could establish a system by which taxation in England could be materially! reduced, and the overseas dominioiisj would take their fair share in this question of naval defence. K&W ZEALAND'S POSITION. •• He was going into this matter apart altogether from the question of what any other self-governing dominion was doing, he said it advisedly that if the country to which he belonged was ;going to ally herself for'purposes of sea defence to any navy in any part of the world, then he wanted to be part, not of the tail of the dog, but attached to the head aijd shoulders of the dog, so that in any trouble which came along the swish or the tail of the dog should not be' the position of New Zealand in this questioi: of defence. If the final judgment were in the direction of sectional navies, he for one would help to make sectional navies in every possible way a success, for he held the belief that the Empire should be powerful beyond the possibility of successful attack from any other cc untry.