The Star. SATURDAY, MAY 13, 1905. NAVY AND COLONIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8315, 13 May 1905, Page 4

The Star. SATURDAY, MAY 13, 1905. NAVY AND COLONIES.

Although it was not on material .grounds alone that Mr James Allen appealed to his audience at the Navy League conversazione last night, it is,

wo suspect, .the material view of the colonies' connection with the Navy that /appeals to tKe majority of colonials. "We may talk a great deal about patriotism and about upholding the traditions of the past, but when the average individual thinks of the Navy, it is as an insurance against the loss which

would assuredly follow if the Empire's

trade routes were closed. How great .^ {that loss would be it does not need a ' ( practised mathematician to calculate.

The superficial observer can easily

perceive that it would be enormous, and that nowhere would it fall with greater severity than on the outlying

parts of the Empire such as New Zea-

land. Patting aside the risk of invasion, the danger to this colony if Britain were plunged in a naval war would ho grave indeed. Powerful as the Navy is, its strength would be taxed to the uttermost to furnish a sufficient fleet for battle purposes and enough ships to successfully police every one of the Empire's trade routes. To accomplish the latter object would require & great preponderance of cruisers, and even then it might not be possible to feeep the routes perfectly clear. The area, of seaway to bo patrolled would be very large indeed, and the utmost vigilance on the part of the British captains might not prevent a hostile cruiser from working vast havoc among bur merchantmen. The harassing of their mercantile marine is, of course, only one of the commercial drawbacks which the colonies would suffer in the event of war. Even if they never lost a vessel they would have to pay war freights and war insurance charges, and the less effective the protection offered by the Navy the greater these charges would assuredly be. For an example of what a

naval war might cost the trad-

ing community we have only to refer to the insurance quotations ilast year when the Russian Vladivo- : stock squadron was raiding the Yellow Sea. ■ Rates on Far Eastern cargoes rose to a fabulous extent, and in view of the/ injury to shipping inflicted by the raiders it cannot be said that they were excessive. These rates j fell primarily on the shippers, but ultimately they had to be paid by the jpublic. Much the same thing would happen if Britain were "at war with a

naval Power. The war risks would be

paid by the shippers, but they would ■# fall ultimately on the producer and the consumer, and thus on the -two sections •which comprise the whole of the community; In New Zealand not a single

person would escape the burden

, "would perhaps fall heaviest on the projfduoer and exporter, but it would be shared only in a slightly less degree by the importer and the consumer. To

the colony aa a whole war would be a

grave „ misfortune commercially if the trade routes remained open, and a disaster if they were olosed. • As it

would be within .the power of an effi-

cient navy to minimise the one and avert the other it would seem to be sound business for the colony to assistin maintaining an efficient navy.