NEED OF A NAVY.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1919, Page 1

NEED OF A NAVY.

NAVAL OFFICERS OPINION. [PER PRESS ASSOCIATION. COPYRIGHT.] WELLINGTON, December 23. Lieutenant Commander Bourke, V.C., D. 5.0., with bar, who was in charge of Motor Launch No 276 in the blocking operations at Ostend in April and May, 1918 was accorded a welcome at the Town Hall this' afternoon. Lieut. Commander Bourke, in replying mentioned that be was nob in New Zealand in an official capacity. Therefore any opinions expressed by him were simply his personal views. He continued:—“l think myself, New Zealand was never in greater need than now of an imperial navy, capable, in the event of war, of keeping an enemy fleet' from putting to sea. I have come to this conclusion after my experience in working with monitors on the Belgian coast. The monitors patrolled the Belgian Coast daily, escorted by destroyers and bombarded whenever they wished to. They went with in ten and twenty miles of the coast in | broad daylight, anl under cover of ! smoke screens, bombarded with absolute impunity. Motor launches made a ’ dense bank of smoke between the monitors and the enemy shore batteries. I don’t know of a single instance of a monitor being fait by an enemy shell throughout the ' operations off Ostend. Had it not been Belgian, the monitors could quite easily have destroyed it. In the "tyiggest bombardment there was eight monitors with 12 inch and, 18 inch guns and each monitor was fired at the , rate of one round every thirty seconds or so. Each shell was capable of com- ! pletely wrecking a big building. If

this terrific fire had been concentrated on Ostend, instead of on enemy batteries and coastal defences you can imagine, what the effect would have been. Almost all the important towns in New Zealand are on or near the coast and in the event of war, and the Imperial Navy being defeated, there is nothing to prevent an enemy coming within ten or twenty miles of the coast in the day time, under cover, of a smoke screen, and destroying town after town with impunity. The enemy had batteries on the Belgian coast, mounting 222 guns, along most of twelve miles, and 136 of these guns were from 6in to 15in—big guns ranging up to 20 miles. If Now [Zealand batteries mounted the same number of guns per mile as the enemy did on the Belgian coast, which of course is quite impossible, they would still be absolutely powerless to prevent

an enemy fleet, in daytime, under cover of a smoke screen, from destroying town after town. It is on account of this that I have coflje to the conclusion that the only for the towns of New Zealand in the eb’ent of war is to have ah Imperial NavV capable of bolding an enemy navy fr£ nl proceeding to sea. In order to hav4 a stron S nna y, ifc ia essential you shouff 1 havo a strong Navy League, and I t h i nk th ere is no time when the vork the Navj League is of gr/eater importance than I