NEW ZEALAND & THE NAVY,

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1590, 6 November 1912, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND & THE NAVY,

One of yesterday's "cable messages repotted the possibility that Mr. Ceuuoiiii.i. will visit Canada, and that his visit may, bp mjit.de, .jthe .pp.portunity tq hold an Imperial CW ference at Vancouver on naval, defence.; The holding of such a conference should bo very welcome to New Zealand, and it is to be hoped that satisfactory arrangements will he made. The London Timet, we are informed to-day, is suggesting that the Hon. Jas. Allen's visit to England affords Australia an opportuu: ity to send-Home Mil. PearoE,. the Minister for Defence, to join in conference with the British Govern ment. As an alternative it proposes either that a conference; attended by the British Cabinet Ministers concerned, should be held in Australia dr. that the representatives of the Mothorlaiic! and thq ■ Dominions should .foregather in Vancouver. Events have moved so rapidly since the. Naval Agreement in 1909_ that no further time should bc_ lost in reviewing the whole situation. It is not generally remembered that tha£ Agreement has been quietly set aside by common consent. ■ The arrangement was that Australia should construct a fleet unit based! on her own ports, that, Britain should establish an East India unit and. that the New Zealand Dreadnought should be the flagship of-a China unit. It was also thought that Canada' would make herself responsible for a Unit in her Pacific waters. All this , has been save that Australia hits gone straight ahead with her share of the work. . Nobody need greatly, regret this, because there have been some important develop-, ments since 1909, the chief being the extension of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty, with its alteration of the Pacific problem, and the new German Havy Law, involving closer-, concentration and greater readiness in the North Sea.

We had hoped that before the session ended our Government would have made some general statement of policy, even if it were only to let us know with what special preoccupations Mr. Allen will talk to Mr. Churchill and, if the Conference is arranged, to the t representatives of the other Dominions. When he . took oharge of the portfolio of Defeiice Mr. Allen found, oil the naval side, nothing at all but the subsidy. Perhaps it was just as well that he found what was thus an open space for building upon. In his speech on September 24, at the opening of the Navy League Conference,_ the Minister expressed his dissatisfaction with the present situation, aiid struck the note of co-operation with Australia, from which, he said, New Zealand cannot be divorced where defence is, concerned. In -an editorial reference to Mr. Allen's speech a couple of days later, the London Times noted that there were signs that Australia was in a mood [ to reciprocate the feeling in New Zealand in favour of some arrangement between the two countries. It was on this account, it thought, that Mr; Fisher, the Australian Prime Minister, had expressed himself in favour of biennial Imperial consultations. While approving this idea, the Times doubted whether even biennial conferences would keep the Dominion Cabinets abreast of events, and drtelared that it would never rest from urging that tho Dominions should be, permanently represented by members of their own Cabinets on the Committee of Defence. This would be a most important development which would change the whole face of the defence problems of the Dominions. No doubt this innovation will bo discussed at any conference that may be'held, but for New Zealand the important thing is the making - a commencement- with some clear policy. The "policy" of simply

ing a subsidy is not a policy at all in a'time wlioft the iiicreiuiing burden on the Motherland mure and more urgently csjinmands that every one of tho Dominions shall do something positive towards becoming an efficient nation and a real arm of the Empire in the time of war, Mr, Au.kn may wifely be trusted to .keep his mind fixed on the realities of the situation instead of fmining Up himty fantastic schemes; and we look to much good as far as New Zealand is concerned as the result of his conversations with the representatives of the other partners in the Umpire.