NAVAL DEFENCE.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17122, 18 April 1921, Page 6

NAVAL DEFENCE.

MAINTENANCE OF IMPERIAL NAVY. 1 MR MABSEY'S PREDICTION. (PRESS ASSOCIATION TE.*O!UM.) AUCKLAND, April 16. Mr Massey, roplying to a commercial travellers' farewell, said that they bod played au important part in tho history. of the Dominion, and there waa far greater work for thuin to do. Th# Empire had to be kept together at §ll costs, and only by tho unswerving loyalty of the community could4his bo accomplished. Commercial traveller* were propagandists, and ho would them to impress' upon the people tfcei the future of the Empire depended w> on naval defence. It was essential that maritime connexions filioiild be maintained. Tho timo nould come when the Dominion would havo to assist tho Mother Country in tho nuuit* tonance of Imperial Navy. Thoir j>olicy miist bo to do as much as possible. He thought that New Zealand would have to maintain her own shipi ' as a protection of her commerce, April 17. The business. to bo dealt wiuh at tho Imperial Conference was again refcrnd to by tho Prime Minister yesterday, (jw of tho moat important matters to n ' discussed, he said*,would bo that,#tk naval defence, especially in tho PacSciß There fierp people who *aid twS next 6torm centre wou)d be the P«ejf(&J W'hotlher this would ba so, ho woiMj not protend to say, but wo would to go through another war. It mifjkf not bo for ten, twenty, or forty yemf, but it woiild most assuredly take pl«jk' and it behoved tho £mpir« to be rcsnr for it when it did oome. {io was ttyff! going to tho country to heuy, expenditure on anything that could H! Avoided, but the time was coming wh| wo must assist flio United keeping up> an Imperial Navy. A* H as the Government's policy w«» cemed, New Zealand Would do ite|H§l share in an IwperislN