FEDERAL NAVY.

Gisborne Times, Volume VI, Issue 293, 18 December 1901, Page 3

FEDERAL NAVY.

AUSTRALIAN SEAMEN

By Telegraph. Press Association. Copyrighj Melbourne, Dec. 17. Captain J. E. Creaswell, Naval Commandant of Queensland, furnishes Mr Barton with a report on tho possibilities of acquiring a Federal Navy by employing Australian seamen for the defenco of Commonwealth commerce and ports. He contends that Australia should tako an active personal share in its own defence. An insuperable bar to having its own navy was tho orignal cost would be four millions, with one hundred thousand pounds as the annual charges for maintenance, lie declares that tho alternative proposal of an increased contribution to the Imperial Government is one of stagnation and continued naval impotence for Australia.

As a first principle) ha lays down that the naval scheme must bo gradually developed on sound lines, each forward step being met by a reduction of the annual t contribution to tho Imperial Government, to load finally to Australia taking over the protection of its own floating trade. Captain Cresswell makes the following ■ suggestions:—As a first step, the provision of ono modern cruiser, specially designed to suit local requirements, with armament of the latest pattern ; the coasts and ports of Australia to be divided into naval districts for training purposes, each district to raise one ship’s company, the ship to make a round of the districts twico yearly, for practical training purposes. He estimates tho cost of ono cruiser at three hundred thousand pounds, and the maintenance at forty-seven thousand pounds annually. Tho latter could bo made up by the transfer of one-third of the present contribution to the auxiliary squadron, and twelve thousand pounds reduction in expenditure on the present naval expenditure. The first ship should bo ordered at once, and completed in 1903, and an additional ono ordered every second year up to 1907. He suggests the setting aside of three hundred to three hundred and fifty thousand pounds annually for ten years for naval defence, which would suffice to provide five cruisers suitable for Australian defence, would leave no debt, and provide all that was required for renewals. There are eighteen hundred men under tho various State naval forces, and, with proper training afloat, they could be made an efiective body for sea service, and some twenty-nine thousand engaged in sea and rivor services in tho Commonwealth, who could bo drawn upon. Tho scheme is designed to develop the naval capacity at the least cost to the country. j