NAVAL POLICY.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 January 1922, Page 4

NAVAL POLICY.

IMPORTANT STATEMENT BY MR MASSEY. ' ’ | AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND TO BE SCRAPPED. ' ’ WELLINGTON, Jan 20. , When the Defence Estimates were j taken in the House of Representatives this afternoon, Mr Witty moved that tbo vote be reduced by £lO. He objected to the cost of keeping the Chatham and Philomel ia our waters. The Prime Minister took the opportunity of making a somewhat important and interesting statement' regarding the position. He explained that it hpd , been decided 'that every part of the j Empire had now to contribute to ’ the | upkeep of the Navy, and therefore if , we did away with the t Chatham to-mor j row, it ’woiild not cost the coitniry any less than it was costing now, because in | that case we should have to contribute direct to Britain. It was better, he said, to ixave aj ship in these waters doing useful work than to send the money to England. That was the commercial aspect. He went on to say that.both the Australia and New Zealand were going to he scrapped. That was perhaps unfortunate, but w c had nothing to do with it. So far as New Zealand was concerned the unfortunate part of it was that the New Zealand had not yet been paid for. We had to go on contributing to the cost of that ship for another six years. The Chatham had already been useful on several occasions, and he was particularly impressed with the training of the boys who had been sent to her. In addition. there were certain islands in the Pacific that wo had to police and' some others not directly under our control. Even within the last few weeks the Briish Government asked us to take over a group known as the Union Islands, closo to Samoa, but the Government had replied that while it was willing to police and supervise those islands, it did not see its way to take them over. The necessity for having a warship in these waters was shown by what had happened atj Fiji, where they were threatened with a revolution, for that was really what it meant. (Interrup-

tion from the Labour benches). - Mr McCombs: That’s ridiculous. You only sent strike-breakers down. Mr M issey: The lion, member has got strike‘breakers on the brain. Mr McCombs: Wo were there and you were not. Mr Massey: 1 don’t know, but I have got the exact communications. For a fortnight or three weeks the European j residents of Fiji were in very serious I danger.' ' i Mr Holland: Absolutely ridiculous.; An hon. member: It’s quite true. ! Mr Massey: There was very serious ! danger for a fortnight or three week’s I rf that time, and an appeal for as- j sistaiice came to us. We sent the Tu- ! tanekai down with fifty men and one I machine gun. That served its purpose. j The ship was laying here empty with no coal in hen hunkers, .and no crew, and it took a fortnight to get her away. The whole of the European population ■ of Fiji might have been murdered. Such a situation ought to be avoided, in the future. Then there were occasions when it was necessary to send as- ■ sistnnee to ships in trouble. There was the case of the Aurora, when the Government had the greatest difficulty in getting a vessel with wireless to go to her assistance. They got a ship fitted and she went to the assistance of the Terra Nova but for all that the crew might have been drowned; Fortunately the vessel was picked up in time. It was necessary to keep a ship like the Chatham within wireless reach of New Zealand. He fully appreciated the splendid work that had been done at the Washington Conference, and ho believed the shadow of war had been lifted from the Pacific for several years, hut that was no reason why the British Navy should not be maintained. V was. one who believed that wars .wer.e not yet over. New Zealanders lvere bound to' ho a maritime people in the future, and it was better to pay for a. ship in our own waters than to send the money to the British Government. We might he called upon to pay something towards the cast of the new ships that were being built, nndi if so there was no doubt that wo would do our duty. Ht asked hon. members to think of what had taken place in these waters during the war, and he mentioned the ships that had been sunk owing to the presenco of a- German raider in our waters. If we had had a, ship like the Chatham here, that raider would not have got away, or possibly she would never have come here. Tn tim 0 the Chatham would become obsolete, probably at the end of her present term, eighteen months from now, but the Imperial Government had agreed to replace her with a faster and newer oil ship at no expense to the New Zealand Government. No one wanted to save money more than he did under existing circumstances, hut he did not think that the money spent on the Chatham was money well spent. Mr McCombs said that if he had wanted a) reason for voting for the reduction of the vote, the Prime Minister had given it to him in what he had stated about Fiji. It was the most unwarranted use of the military that had ever happened. Some of the soldiers had told them that they were disgusted in being sent on such a. -mission, which was just to bring down the wages to eighteenpence a day. Mr Massey: I don’t know if the hon. member - was not one of those who were responsible for the position in Fiji. He ought to be ashamed to mention it. Mr McCombs : I knew nothing about it until it was all over. Mr Holland (to Mr Massey): Yon must have lost your senses. Mr Isitt said he ha id been told by a. missionary in Fiji that there, had been actual danger of an armed attack upon the white population. Mr Holland said the trouble was am ordinary industrial strike. The Minister of Defence (Sir Heaton Rhodes) assured the House that the Chatham had done very good work. The Government’s naval defence policy was in line with the recommendations of the Naval Commission, and had the entire approval of the British Admiralty. After Borne further discussion, Mr Witty suggested that that his amendment bo taken on the voices, hut the Labour members called for a division,