NAVY CUT TO THE BONE

Waipa Post, Volume 47, Issue 3386, 28 October 1933, Page 10

NAVY CUT TO THE BONE

FIRST-LORD ON VALUE TO THE NATION. ■ '' 21 PER, CENT INSURANCE.' - ■ NO MORE ONE-SIDED DISARMA-- ,*. .' " ..' ,MENT. '.'. Sir- "Bolton Eyres-Mohsell, First; Lord : of tKe Admiralty, speaking in England recently said: " People com- , plain of the expense of the Navy, ' which costs about £5.0'f100,000 a yeai. but they should remember the value. of our overseas trade..- In 1925 the ; value -of Britain overseas trade was over£S,ooo,o€o,ooo." "The aiinual cost' of our Navy is just;aliout-21 per cent of that; and I suggest that 21 per ■ cent is not a high rate of insurance." BROTHERHOOD PROPAGAND A. The First Lord added: " But it .'is;. not only the cost tends to blind: the country to the true value of the; Navy; There is the propaganda that says that navies ought fc> be replaced , by universal brotherhood. f* If this is ; true, the only people who have taken any such steps toward universal brotherhood are ourselves. for we have cut our'Nayy ; to the bone. ; " Butwe have had «6 response from others. Since 1914 we have reduced . our naval tonnage by 47 per cent, but in the same period Italy has increased by 20 per cent, the U.S.A. by 29 per cent and Japan by 37 per. cent. .;' ; ; "It is true that France can point to a small reduction of 10 per cent, but the French Navy of 1914 included much tonnage which, for practical purposes, was obsolete. "In spite of all this, there are people who urge that we should reduce our Navy still further—-who accuse us of standing in the way of further worid disarmamentsv- I believe that many .of these peoplef-mean very well: they simply do not know the truth, and they must be told the truth. "We cannot have any more onesided disarmament. We cannot always be idealists.; we must face realities; and remember that it is not peace-time Navy Estimates that cost " money; it is wars. Aind wars are not made by a strong British l*Javy; they are prevented by it. "If there is ene fact that is shown v by our own history;it; is'that the fortunes of England our Navyis strong «nd fall when it is weak.":