REDUCTION IN STRENGTH

Taranaki Daily News, 30 January 1934, Page 10

REDUCTION IN STRENGTH

NAVY INSURANCE ASPECT. CAPTAIN DORLING’S ADDRESS. Captain Taprell Dorling, D. 5.0., R.N., addressed members of the Wellington Navy League on Wednesday evening, continuing his presentment of the inadequacy of the British Navy to-day. He proceeded to show that pacts and treaties alone were not reliable safeguards for the Empire. “Nobody can be averse to our leading the way in disarmament,” he said. “But every inhabitant of the Empire must or should be averse to our disarming when other nations do not, and to the idea that they should be left ■with sufficient forces to bring us to our knees if international machinery for the preservation of peace happens not to work. “In round figures the Navy costs us about £50,000,000 a year. In 1925 the value of our overseas trade was round about £2,000,000,000. This means you can take the money spent on the Navy as about 2J per cent, of the value of the trade, and that is not a very high rate of insurance when you think of the risks that are covered. “What is your share in this trade? One of your official publications tells me that in 1932 your imports were valued at £23,000,000 odd, and your exports at about £35,500,000. That means that every man, woman and child in this country is interested in oversea trade to the extent of about £4O a year—say, £l6 worth of imports and £24 worth of exports. What is to happen •if this is suddenly cut off, if, for instance, your yearly £13,000,000 worth of imports from the United Kingdom fails to arrive, and you can’t get rid of the £31,000,000 worth of food and other goods you produce each year and send to Britain It is going to be pretty serious for you, as well as for us at Home. I would remind you, too, that of 564 vessels entering the ports in this Dominion in one year, 474 flew the British flag and only 90 a foreign one. “We have cut down to an appalling extent. Since 1914 our naval tonnage has been reduced by 47 per cent., though in the same period Italy has increased hers by 20 per cent., the United States by 29 per cent., and Japan by 37 per cent. In money, our Navy Estimates have deceased by about £4,000,000 since 1924, while those of the other signatories to the Washington and London Naval Treaties have increased by £28,500,000. Take men. In 1914, before the war, our naval personnel was 146,000-odd. To-day it is 90,300, the lowest since 1895-96. Since 1914, indeed, Britain has reduced her naval personnel by about 55,700, while the United States and Japan have increased theirs by 70,000.” Captain Dorling dealt fully with the need for sufficient cruisers to carry out convoy duty. In September, 1917, 41 cruisers were being used for this purpose in the Atlantic alone. “Our cruiser strength to-day is utterly inadequate,” he said. “Fifty is not enough, not nearly enough. . . We do not want 10,000-ton cruisers armed with 8-inch guns whose size and numbers were agreed to at the Washington and London Naval Conferences. We would like cheaper, handier cruisers and more of them—ships armed with 6-inch guns and of smaller tonnage.