Naval Economies.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20494, 12 March 1932, Page 14

Naval Economies.

Included in the Report of the Economy Commission is a suggestion that ouv expenditure on naval defence should be reduced by restoring Admiralty control of the New Zealand Division and by reducing our contribution to the Singapore Base by £50,000. If, as seems probable, both economy and efficiency can be promoted by a return to Admiralty control, there can lie no objection to the proposal if New Zealand's share of the cost remains proportionately the same as before. Similarly the proposal to cut down the allocation for the Singapore Base can be justified if the British Government is itself slowing up there, and would be doing so even if we had not made a rather miserable appeal for the' sealing down of our contribution. But it would be a shabby trick to reduce our contribution in the knowledge that the British taxpayer will ha-/e to make up the difference, especially as New Zealand is now paying much less than lier fair share of the cost of the Navy. According to the latest figures, the cost of naval defence to New Zealand is 9s Id per head of population, as against 22s 7d a head in Britain. We arc not so near the rocks that we need increase that shameful disparity.