The Dominion. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1914. PARTY AND NAVAL POLICY

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2307, 14 November 1914, Page 6

The Dominion. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1914. PARTY AND NAVAL POLICY

The splendid work done for the Empi.re by the Australian cruiser Sydney in bringing the marauding career of _ the Emden to a 6udden end provides a more convincing justification of self-help and selfreliance in naval defence than a whole volume of theoretical arguments. The Australian Fleet has overwhelmingly justified its existence during the present war, and has completely put to silence" the jeers of those who endeavoured to throw ridicule upon the naval policy of the New Zealand Government by contemptuous references to "tin-pot" navies. Opposition critics are well aware that the Sydney's exploit has put them to confusion,, and most of them are convinced that tho less they say about the matter the better; but the Auckland Star has broken the silence with an article which will probably cause much more uneasiness to Sir Joseph Ward and his friends . than to anyone else. The destruction of the Emijen by a vessel of the Australian Navy has aroused the ungrudging enthusiasm of the whole British world, but the. blind of the Auckland .Wardist journal will not permit it to ( join heartily in tho chorus. of congratulation. It unhappily cannot see in the Sydney's, exploit a splendid manifestation of the ability as well as tho will of the Overseas Dominions* to take a fuller and. nobler share of the responsibilities of Empire Defence; it cannot see in this achievement an inspiration to the whole Empire at a time of unprecedented stress i and trial. It sees only that tho wisdom of a line of policy laid down by a Government it detests politically has been impressively demonstrated, and it allows its petty party prejudice to smother, with its rank growth the greater obligations it owes to New Zealand and the Empire. The First Lord of the Admiralty speaks of "the brilliant entry of the Australian Navy into the war," and the Canadian Press refers to the Sydney's "magnificent work"; but the Star has nothing but the faintest praise for the Australian cruiser's victory. It declares that the fact that the Emden was finally run to earth by a, cruiser of the Australian Navy

Is of course gratifying to 'Australians, though it may be well to remark thait as tho Sydney is a muoh larger cruiser than tho. Emdon, and carried B-itich Runs against the German's 1-inch guns, the fight could liave only one result. However, the Emden's career is over, and there is probably, from tho standpoint of /the British mercantile marine, amplo excuse for the enthusiasm displayed by the brokern and underwriters' at Lloyd's when the good news was announced in London. The reason for this belittlement of tho Sydney's achievement is to be' found in the fact that it has na--1 turally and properly been used as | an argument in favour of the naval policy which tho Opposition has so bitterly assailed; but it is amazing that any newspaper of standing in a British community should go out of its way to make disparaging comments of this nature on the services rendered to the Empire by the bravo men on board the Sydney, who are risking their lives for our protection. It is most deplorable that (hiring tno surn'oma crisis tMvouak .wM tlta ligp.ii'fi k sow.

passing any journal should speak slightingly of this gallant exploit by tho Australian Navy merely because a frank and generous recognition of its value may not fit in with its own ideas, and the ideas of tho political party it supports, on tho naval question. This is partisanship run mad. It is placing the interests of a party before tho wclfare of tho nation. It is ridicu~ lous to that the work dono by the Australian Navy is not an argument in .favour of tho policy which brought it into being, and it is futile to assert as the Auckland ojflr does tha-fs if the Australian Fleet _ did not exist we would have been just as safe in this part of tho world, as it would have been necessary for tho Admiralty to guard Australia and Zealand from invasion or raids by hostile cruisers. It is partly because the Admiralty could not, or in any case did not ; take effective steps to provide this protection that New Zealand decided to take a greater share of the responsibility on her own shoulders and to abandon the old subsidy system. For that reason and because of a recognition that the time had come when we jshould do something more than we had done in the past to relieve the Mother Country of some of the terrific burden she had been carrying for us for so long. The Admiralty never carried out the 1909 'agreement, and the effort of the Government to secure from the Home Authorities the fulfilment of the promise to provide two cruisers of the "Bristol" type ended in failure, despite the fact that Mr. Allen offered to increase our subsidy by 50 per cent. These are_ plain facts which cannot be' explained away, and recent events have opened'the eyes of the public to their . significance. Tho Canadian, Press sees quite .clearly that Australia's naval policy has been completely justified by what has happened since the war began, 1 and frankly admits that "the creation of the Australian Navy was an act .of foresighted statesmanship worthy of Canadian imitation at the earliest _ possible moment." The London Daily Mail takes a similar view, and 6tates that the useful work in the Pacific already standing to the credit of the Australians overwhelmingly justifies their prescience and patriotism in starting their own naval unit. But by a strange confusion of ideas our Auckland contemporary arrives at the conclusion that _ the action of the, Sydney in getting rid of the Emden is simply an "accidental fact," and it _ damns the exploit with faint praise because an intelligent public is rightly estimating its bearing on tho problem of naval defence. Defence questions should not be made party issues in the ordinary sense at all, but when a political party insists on a policy whether of military or naval defence, which is inadequate to the needs of,the nation and prejudicial to the interests of the Empire, then the people must decide between the two parties as they would between the two issues. But nothing _ but_ contempt can be felt for_ an individual or a newspaper which for party purposes seeks to belittle a gallant exploit by brave men who have done a service of immense importance to the Empire not only by destroying the most daring and destructive oi the enemy's ocean raiders, but bv the great moral effect such achievement must _ have throughout tho whole Empirej and, indeed, the whole world.