GIFT DREADNOUGHT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1412, 12 April 1912, Page 5

GIFT DREADNOUGHT.

RUMOURED CHANGE OF PLANS. BATTLE-CRUISERS NOT FOR PACIFIC. "MORNING rOST" HErORT. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright London, April 10. The naval correspondent of the "Morning Post" expresses some doubt as to the intention of the Admiralty to station tho Australia and the New Zealand (New Zealand's gift battle-cruiser) in the Pacific in pursuance of tho defence agreement of 1909, which provides that the cruisers shall bo respectively the flagships of tho Australian and- China licet units. The correspondent states: "It will be interesting to see whether the battle-cruisers Australia and New Zealand will sail for Australasia at the end of tho year. Tho best opinion has Icng been that the only justification for such ships is the ability to use them as a fast wing of a battle fleet. "During tho Navy debate Mr. Churchill (First Lord of the Admiralty) referred to tho necessity for a certain proportion of vessels of the greatest speed and tho highest power being used to turn an enemy's line, to bring a hostile fleet to action, or to compel a retreating fleet to abandon a portion of its force, in preference to partaking in a general engagement. "Mr. Churchill's description of the duties of battle cruisers makes it obvious that tho service which a battle cruiser might render was misunderstood when the Admiralty sanctioned tho Australia and New Zealand joining fleet units comprising only three second-class cruisers. Even if the words which the Admiralty put into Mr. Churchill's mouth did not represent tho 'vliole case, thcro is no immediate prospect of a battle fleet being required in tho Far East; hence it appears that the Australia and New Zealand will be unsuitable for the stations to which the former Board of Admiralty proposed that they should be scut." DEFENCE MINISTER SURPRISED. NO INFORMATION RECEIVED. The Hon. A. M. Myers, wlien shown tho above cablegram last evening, expressed surprise, lie said that he had understood that the arrangement was that the battle cruiser New Zealand would be the flagship of the China Squadron, and would visit New Zealand waters every year. No information as to any alteration in this arrangement had reached him. It was just possible that the Prime Minister had received a communication, but, if so, it could only have arrived that day. Tho Prime Minister (the Hon. T, Mackenzie) is out of town. .