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Hokitika Guardian, 10 January 1922, Page 2

Thk Geddes Committee on Economy has proposed a reduction of the British naval personnel to 35,000 officers and men. No announcement hitherto made brings out more startlingly the change that lias come over British naval policy. Before the war the Navy had a strength of 146,000 officers and men, including some 3000 in the coastguard service. At the armistice the naval personnel, including the reservists serving. but not including the Royal Nava] Division, stood at 415,000. In the last Estimates the First. Lord announced a reduction to 121,700 or 25,000 below the pre-war figure. If effect is given to the Geddes proposal it will mean that the manning, of the British Navy wifi be reduced to a scale some thousands below that of the Italian Fleet in 1914. At that date Italy stood seventh on the list of the world’s navies. The human factor is not so decisive in naval warfare as in land operations, but a dispersal of the trained personnel of the British Navy will have effects that must he felt long after the ten-year naval holiday proposed under the Washington agreement.. Ships can he built more quickly than crews can be trained to man them, and the Americans have been finding this circumstance a hampering factor in their ambitious naval programme. The maintenance of the Navy has meant a heavy load for the British taxpayer, and he may rejoice to feel the burden lightened. If the international situation is so secure that so drastic a reduction is safe and change is all to the good, and means a great release of energy for productive purposes. Nevertheless there are not a few of us who may feel that this sweeping reduction bears some relation to the act of a merchant who cuts out his insurance premium* in order to save money.