NAVAL STRENGTH

Taranaki Daily News, 13 November 1934, Page 3

NAVAL STRENGTH

GREAT BRITAIN’S NEED. GUARDING OF TRADE ROUTES. “We have to remember that the war did not finish in 1918—it only let up,” said Lieutenant-Commander R. N. Harding, R.N., addressing the Wellington Navy League recently. “We have left all the bones of contention undecided. It is only a question of passing it on to the next generation, and then when prosperity has returned and what we have learned has been forgotten the danger point will come. Britain must have an adequate navy.” There was at the University a noisy minority asserting that there should be no navies at all in the world, Lieuten-ant-Commander Harding said. There was a tragic irony in the fact that as some people progressed through the various stages until the highest point of culture was reached they lost that will to fight which had taken them to that point. He was just as much a pacifist as anyone, but he looked at the matter from a different viewpoint. In his opinion the British Navy was the strongest factor for peace and for the prevention of roguery in the world to-day. New Zealanders, in their isolated position, knew little of the complication of international politics. When he referred to “dagoes” at Canterbury College he was howled down, but there were some people whom he preferred to call “dagoes.” They were ready to stick a man in the back at the first opportunity and they were equally ready to attack Britain. Britain, he said, depended for her trade upon the Navy, and New Zealand depended upon Britain. The statesman s job in peace time was to protect trade routes. In his opinion the statesman had to think in terms of what had happened and not of what was happening. At any moment agreements were liable to be broken, and war might break out. At one time, when the U-boat menace was at its. height, there was six week’s food left in England, and great privation was suffered. It was with great difficulty that the menace was averted. The only method available was to wipe out the enemy fleet, or to restrict its operations, in order to protect the whole of the trade routes. This would require a tremendous fleet, or the convoy system, which (was largely the method adopted. At the present time it was proposed to build a number of convoy sloops of 2000 tons and four 4-inch guns. In the speaker's opinion these sloops would be death traps. Fast cruisers of good strength and with at least five 5-mch guns were necessary.