SPEECH BY SIR G. REID.

West Coast Times, 19 March 1910, Page 3

SPEECH BY SIR G. REID.

LONDON, March 18

At the Anglo-Saxon’s Club dinner, Sir Gilbert Parker presiding, Sir G. Reid, in responding to the toast of the “Club’s Guest,” said whatever the terms controlling the relation of the Australian Navy or the navies of the other Dominions to the British Navy, Australian ships must be ready to find themselves as near the Empire’s future “Trafalgar” as possible, and lie knew that was where the Australian ships would bo. He had no fear for Britain while its people could show their ancestors attributes. He added that it would not be wise to depend on a branch of the Anglo-Saxon race not in the Empire, or any Home ally or friend with whom wo had understandings. Understandings were very good things and should he cultivated, but wo wanted something behind them. He did not know what an understanding could be worth, considering even a treaty is worth little or nothing in an emergency .srugglo between nations, which struggles in one form or another are inevitable. There was a greater danger to us, perhaps, in the laboratories of the foreign countries, than in their dockyards.