CORRESPONDENCE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 12856, 30 September 1912, Page 8

CORRESPONDENCE.

THE NAVY.

. - ■ To the Editor. Sir; —Public attention has been riveted; and ngiitiy so, on wnat Lord Charles Beresford said at Abbey Manor, Eve«hara, on the 7th inst: "The constituted authorities and the Admiralty Press have been, fooling' the people. ... One of the principal delinquents is the Navy League." He has hit straight from the shoulder, and he is. absolutely right. 'The Old Navy League went all to pieces soon after the advent of the Lib^rat party to power. It refused to attack*the~ Xiiberals for their naval reductiona. Hence . the "great split" which commenced in 1906, which cul- : minate^ in May, 1907, "and the whole history of • which is recorded in " The Passing of the Great Fleet;" and hence, „ also, the foundation of that splendid fighting organisation, the Imperial Mar- ,. itimo League. The old and "much mis"understood shibboleth "Non-Party" was t' %he cause of the Old Navy League's 'undoing. The Imperial Maritime League interprets this phrase in the offlV logical and intelligible manner, "namely, that it is the duty of any •League, professing to be a "non-party" ; ] organisation, to attack any and every i party (whatever its political complex- ] ion) wHch fails in its primary dufy of j safeguarding the National and Imperial •Defenc&s. This interpretation under- ' lies, and will continue ;:to underlie', the every action of the' Imperial Maritime League. TJie Old Navy, League, on the ; "other 'hand, - has, unfortunately, . con- • «trued .'and perverted the phrase for { manyjyears past, in -such a manner as to make , the' Navy League the strong- ! -est bulwark of thei Liberaf Government'! .in Great Britain in the jieelect .of our '■■ national" and, Imperial -_ defences. For i that-'League interprets* the term as i meaning .that,-for very fear of being called a "party" organisation, it must not attack any party."Not to, attack a party\ when that party neglects its primary duty of safeguarding those de-,' fences, is to make the.body, so refraining from attack^ oriminis/* with 'that, party' m that; neglect. That is exactly- what the Old Navy League Baa-done. The Old^Naj.y League, in other words, has" "constituted itself •throughout, by its abstention * fr^m" at 1- - tack on the Liberal Goyernme|t{t.. the "particeps eriminis" .with" tXe Liberal Government in its neglect of- theiTiational and. Imperial defences. '■ The present . crisis is but one result ot.that negject.: For that neglect, .for that crisis* the Old Navy League is, in very .large part, responsible. In fact and in effect it. has made itself a "party" organisation in support of the party officially -respon- ' «ible alike for that neglect and for that crisis. Yet, as if it. had done enough evil already, it has now' gone further. For in its recent public manifesto (of the 24th ult.) it has actually stated i.i terms that it (the' Old Navy League) -"has recognised gladly the maintenance) of our naval strength until the pros■ent time." A more ill-informed positVn could hardly be ppssible/ particularly in view of the admission.in the seJf-snno •manifesto that the present is a "critical position," and that it*^ is largely the result of a lack of cool, steady, methodical preparation, prolonged over a series of years." For had our Telativo naval strength been in fact mainba n<rd .whether by "cool, steady, methodical preparation," or otherwise", during the •past six years, there would have een no crisis to-day. Indeed, but for the Liberal reductions on-the.Navy in 1906, 1907, and 1908—reductions made ,v-:th the practical acquiescence of the Old Navy League—there would", in all human probability, have been no German Supplementary Navy Acts of 1906, 1908 and 1912, throwing upon us the tremendous burden now to be borne if national and Imperial security are to bo restored. And the future will show —that is, if Germany gives it time — that the burden of ,the Navy Estimates of to-day (heavy, indeed, but yet gravely insufficient for our needs) :? nothing compared with the burden of those which must follow if the restoration of national and Imperial safety is to be secured. The Old Navy League's conduct and action have throughout made the work of the Imperial Maritime League trebly difficult and infinitely urgent. There ought at once, it is submitted .to be a public'demand for the final dissolution of ~a League which, from 1906 onwards, has_plnyed straight into the hands of Germany. Lord Oharies Beresford's words, with which this letter ooened, should tend to hasten the disfavour into which the Old Navy League is now falling, and to hasten alike the day when,.by its dissolution, it; shall cease to clog the wheels of •national and Imperial progress, and sb.aH cease to 'be^ the enemy of its own ronntry and of its own race, and the friend of that national rival which strains to wrest from Britannia's weakening grasp the Sceptre of the Seas. I am. etc.. youra faithfjilly. L. ffRAWAM tt. -pryRT'W qMITH. "The Athenaeum Club. Pall Mall, London, S.W.; England, IGth August, 1912.