NAVAL DEFENCE.

Wairarapa Age, 28 May 1936, Page 5

NAVAL DEFENCE.

BRITAIN FACING SERIOUS ISSUES. PRESSING PROBLEM RAISED IN mediterranean. NEW CALLS ON DOMINIONS LIKELY. (Received Wednesday, 10.10 p.m.) LONDON, May 27. The “Daily Telegraph’s” naval correspondent says that already it is clear that owing to the steady expansion of European navies, Britain will not be in a position to maintain strong naval forces both in Europe and in the Far East. The Australian and New Zealand Governments therefore must henceforth depend more and more on their own powers of defence. ’Undoubtedly the most pressing problem is British future policy regarding the Mediterranean, on which even In the Navy itself there are two schools of thought. One holds that Britain could not hold the Mediterranean against a first-class local power and should therefore be prepared to divert all eastern traffic via the Cape when an emergency threatens. The other argues that the Mediterranean must be held at all costs, even if it means modernising the Malta defences and creating new bases in the Eastern Mediterranean. No official decision has yet been reached on the problem, but one thing certain is that only the closest co-operation between the Imperial and Dominion Governments can ensure the Empire’s defences as a whole being placed on a firm foundation. Moreover, it is difficult to see how the Dominions can escape a much heavier burden of expenditure in future than they have undertaken in the past.