OUR NAVY

Waikato Times, Volume 88, Issue 13432, 10 March 1917, Page 5

OUR NAVY

ITS TREMENDOUS TASK. FIRST LORD'S DECLARATION. WHAT GAMBLING WOULD MEAN. (Australian and N.Z. Cable Assn.) Received March 10, 10.y a.in. LONDON, March 9. Sir Edward Carson, First Lord of the Admiralty, at the. Aldwych Club, said: 'T. openly confess that we have not yet satisfactorily solved the problems with which the navy is grappling to maintain our supremacy of the sea. Nothing can be gained by exaggerating or minimising the anxieties we feel in regard to the grave position of re nation to-day. A\e have with an enemy who has set at nought all humanities. The man, power of our race will assert itself, but it must know the task, and it is exhorted to pay no attention to the amateur strategist. We could not afford to_»amble with our fleet, for If the Fleet Failed it would mean the end of the Empire. If the Germans gambled with their fleet it would not mean even the end of the war. lam determined to see that our sailors have full scope without interference. lam neither a coward nor a pessimist—we Will Stick it to the End." Sir El ward Carson, as an instance of the navy's gigantic effort, said it had 150 small patrol beats at the outbreak ot the war, and 3000 now. "We must not," he continued, "under-estiniate the difficulty and danger of dealing with the submarines and mine-layers. Mines had been laid as far as tho Cape of Good Hope, in tkej Gulf of Aden, and near Colombo. The men in the mine-sweepers, who are every moment risking their lives, are feeding Britain. Ido no believe that the sailors of any other country would face dangers. Honest Englishmen would be ashamed to strike in shipyards or arsenals if they understood the navy's privations. Half a million tons of shipping were sunk in February, of which half was British."

The First Lord concluded by declaring that he believed that still more drastic restrictions of imports would be necessary."