THE NUTS FUTURE

Hokitika Guardian, 6 March 1922, Page 4

THE NUTS FUTURE

\ NOTE HE'WARNING. T! i E SAEi'TY LIMIT REACHED. “i am ii.fl alto; ether happy.” said his Excellency the Govcruo.-General, Tisconnt Jclliciic, according to t!i • Ashiur-oii "vhmadian,” at ihe returned s. 1 ii; iv’ banquet on T - ms lav evening, “about the future of the Empire’s Navy. \Ye have seen by recent cablegranie that the Navy Estimates have been cut down, to what, in pre-war days, would have been a very low iigur. with the sovereign at its pre-war value. I know that we aie right down to our saicty limit. I know also that it is the cs'-e that money is very tight, in the C IV iis'l I'.il i; : ■ rii i mi ■ a u' : lit’n : ing't get a little easier ue shall he

•: ;ptr d In g ■ a little f*.:rt! er ill tie fence expenditure than tie are doiire now. When tha‘ time comes, I hope everybody will remember that you cannot improvise a navy ; that is an imposshilily. With good o(Ii< ers ard noncommissioned officers to train the men von can, to a certain extant, get a fine

army logo* her in a re s.ma'dv sh.i t p rind; but you can never do t at with G:e navy. You cannot train your man as fast as you can build the shins in • h:eh thev have to tight. A.s the prosperity and the safety of 1 he- Eninire :s i m! to depend on sea communications as long as the Empire exists, ii is a fact thill; one must look very seriously indeed at any proposal 1 1 weaken the naval forces.” A similar note, in rosp et to the army was struck by Colonel Young. In (O’: mmi with the navy, he said, the a n:, was passing through a serious p-wi si of strength reduction. It would ! c n Viced by the rep-art of the Gedd'es Co omission that a rodim'ion of 929,090,OOt) in tie armv vote in Britain was recommended. In Non Zealand also, there was a reduction of 9200,000 in the estimates for deletion purp ,ses. All realised that wc were passing through a troublous period, but lie hoped that when times were brighter, the returned men would hack up s rioiis endeavour to train and equip tho younger generation lor defence purposes. The years were coming when they would be back numbers, and it was “up to them” to see that the younger men were trained to carry on if tlio need arose. No one of them was anxious to sec his soil go" through, what they had gone through, but it was their place to see that if that eventually occurred, 'they would be ready, trained and equipped for service.