AUSTRALIAN NAVY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 154, 29 June 1907, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN NAVY.

DEAKIN'S REASSURANCE. WO DBEAM OF NAVAI INDEPENDENCE. (Received 9.37 ion..) ! ■ I (By Cable.—Press Assoclatfcn.—CoHyrlgui.) MELBOURI>|E, this day. Mr. DeaMn, welcomed by the Australian Natives Association; dwelt in his reply on the naval question. He remarked:—" Heaven help the Enrpixe, or __,» part of it, if it breaks away from the Imperial Navy." I No proposal, said the Fedoral Prime Minister, had ever crossed! hia mind, and none would ever emanate from the present Commonwealth Government which would imply any, to break kway from the , Imperial Navy. It had bee_ his privilege ;to consult with the politfcal and other [heads of that Navy face tt face, and he had returned, fortified by thfcir advice and 'judgment, to lay before j__ colleagues proposals that they had & yet been | told of, which had met -with the entire approbation of those professional advisers. The people of Australia had grown to what they were,' because they had rested under the shelter of the British flag, but a high : spirited people could not be content to sit still under the shelter of any flag without helping in its own defence. ° "We, or our children," continued Mr. Deakin, " might have to meet no ordinary foes, and this might mean peril to all we hold most dear." If aiwarning came home to any people, it came home to them. Therefore it became them surely to recollect that the time.' was now our own to take advantage of tfre opportunity for making neeessaiy provisions, which should be a net supplement to the strength of the Empire in these seas, as far as it was proportionately incumbent upon them, and not be : content to see work done for them which they should do for themselves. " Until this duty has been discharged," concluded Mr. Deakin, "we are only tenants on a continent which we could not retain. We could not deserve it."