IMPERIAL DEFENCE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXI, Issue 18786, 21 May 1923, Page 11

IMPERIAL DEFENCE

PROBLEM OF THE PACIFIC. LONDON, May 17. Mr Archibald Hurd, writing in the Daily Telegraph, says that misconception apparently prevails overseas with reference to the Admiralty’s attitude on Imperial defence at the forthcoming imperial Conference. Il can be stated emphatically that there is no intention of ignoring political, industrial, or social conditions overseas in the forlorn hope of reverting to a policy of the Dominions contributing to a single Navy instead of building up its own forces. In the present stage of Imperial evolution that idea is unobtainable. The problem must be approached from another angle, in full recognition of the advantage of cultivating the sea instinct and habit in every part of the Empire. The aim must be lather to encourage the growth of the existing naval forces of the Dominions in order that overseas peoples will come to realise that they are really partners with Britain in the responsibilities and privileges of the Commonwealth of free peoples. South Africa has reached the primary stage of naval development, New Zealand has gone further, and Canada and Australia further still. These forces may not at present represent great fighting power—they are still young—but they are evidence of the Dominions’ increasing naval consciousness, and foundations on which future progress must rest. Britain’s guardian angels must have wept at several Commoners’ suggestion that no Government should consent to the British Fleet, hr any part of it, being sent to the Pacific, it is not only conceivable, but it may be inevitable in circumstances which might arise. In any event, we must provide the necessary lines of communication and not again be too late.