DEFENCE OF AUSTRALIA.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8215, 20 August 1906, Page 5

DEFENCE OF AUSTRALIA.

NEED OP A COLONIAL NAVY.

LONDON, August 17. Sir John Cookburn, formerly Agent-General fot Mouth Australia, in an interview supported Captain Cresswell's views in favour of an Australian flotilla to supplement the Imperial fleet. The question, be said, would be one of the deepest importance fifteen or twenty years henou, when the naval development of rival uatiuns had further adtanced. Sir John emphasised the reoent announcement of reductions in the strength of the npvy, and urged that the Empire should profit from the power of initiative and invention wherever found within the Empire. Had only the Mother Country's regiments existed iu Australia there would have been no Australian contingents for South Africa, and the analogy applied in regard to the soa. (Captain Cresswell, Naval Director of the Commonwealth, who way sent Home to confer with the Imperial authorities, reported in favour of the gradual creation of an Australian squadron, to gact as an auxiliary to the Imperial fleet in case of emergency. His scheme . comprised the building of three cruiser deetroyers, sixteen torpedo-boat destroyers, and Hffben first and second-class torpedoboats, to be provided over a period of seven years, at an average annual cost of £330,000. This foroe,vhe considered, would provide a defensive force in time of war that would give seourity to Australian naval bases, populous centres, principal ports, and commerce.)