AUSTRALIA'S NAVY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1533, 31 August 1912, Page 5

AUSTRALIA'S NAVY.

CRUISER SYDNEY LAUNCHED By TelcEraph—Press Association-CopyriElit (Ifcc. Augu«t :iO, 10.30 11.111.) London, August 30. The Commonwealth cruiser Sydney has lieen lauuchcd. The ceremony was attended bv tlio Australian Agents-General. At a lunelicon following the launch, Captain Muirhead Culling private secretary to Sir George Rcid, High Commissioner for Australia, said that in the co-ordination and consolidation of naval resources lay the chief means of preserving tile Umpire, but that would not suffice without military co-ordination, hi this respect, Australia was setting- an exam pie. Captain Collins stated that apart from tho mystery of tho sea the act of committing a vessel to tho water appealed strongly to the imagination because it wns freighted with human, lives and interests. How much stronger was tho appeal when tho vessel was freighted with tho future of the Empire? The launch of tho Sydney evidenced tho Commonwealth's Imperial aspirations; it was a recognition of that unity of the Empire on-ivhich depended free communication by sea, and which was the guarantee of freedom, security, and peace to all within tho Empire's borders. The Sydney was a sign of Australia's living activity and partnership in the defence of tho Empire. Sir Newton Moore, Agent-General for West Australia, in proposing the health of the builders, said the launch brought concretely before the world the growing unity and enlarging power of the Empire in defence. Admiral Sir Reginald Henderson, who some months ago reported on Australian defcnce, replying to the toast of his wife's health, compared the defensive policies of tho various Dominions. New Zealand's he said, was a policy of opportunism. Australia's was best for the Empire, and the preservation of the autonomy of its parts.