The Hokitika Guradian TUESDAY, AUGUST 8th., 1922. SEA POWER.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 August 1922, Page 2

The Hokitika Guradian TUESDAY, AUGUST Bth., 1922. SEA POWER.

The Na y League justifies its existence every dav It keeps alive the knowledge of whnt the Kmpire owes to seapower, mid of what we should lie very soon without spa-power. In pressing for the imparting of this knowledge to the growing generation, the League, oommonts the New Zealand “Times” is doing :t. self-imposed duty well, because it is working at the root of the most important matter before it. This concerns, of course, the New Zealand branch or branches, as the ease may be. That the League as a whole may do much more than it has done for the Empire can be guessed from what that famous similar institution, the German Navy League, did for the late-German Empire The growth of the German Navy, so formidable at the outbreak of the Great War, was the most astonishing event in the Europe history of the last quarter-century. That great naval force was due almost entirely to the German Navy League, which created the public enthusiasm, for the sea-power idea, without' which the efforts of Von Tirpitz and his sup. porters would have utterly failed. Tt is true that the German naval power though second in the world at the outbreak of war failed to avert the disaster which destroyed the German Empire. But that it proved itself a formidable force no one denies, for everyone acknowledges that it protected the German coasts, preventing by its presence, movements of Allied forces which could have very materially shortened the war. Moreover, the submarine warfare, which came very near destroying the power of Britain, would have been impossible without the support of the great fleet in being. That fleet was so badly beaten in the battle of Jutland that it never dared to put to sea again, and when, at the moment mast critical to the German fortunes it was reluctantly ordered out by the

German High Command, the crews mu. tinied rather than face another ordeal of battle with the British. Nevertheless tl.e Fatherland considers that, it won the groat battle, as Lord Northcliffe lias reported from personal observation. There can be no greater proof of the strength of the public opinion created and maintained by the German League than the continuance of this belief, unshaken by the most ignominious surrender of naval force ever recorded. The German example of patriotic faith is not lost on the British Empire. which is supporting its Navy Leagues to keep up its reliance on the spa-power to which it owes so much. The time is opportune for every possible effort to keep up this reliance on sea-power. The war, so far from ending war. has left nn aftermath which is ren- unpleasantly alive with what m ' well he called large, growing crops of war. Until these are destroyed by good sense, and ploughed into a permanently ppaoeful soil by unbreakable international agreement, there will always he urgent need for keeping watch over our naval position. One fact in this position is now clear; the overambitious plans adopted by several oversea Dominions have been scrapped. Thoughtful men always held, from the fust days of the agitation for these plans, that the naval problem is subject to So nlanv uncertainties of scientific development as to he beyond the reach of any hut the main central Imperial authority. Recent developments have confirmed these views. It is impossible to say what type of ship is to rule in future, and difficult to imagine what defence can be made against the war power of aircraft, which has now ht* come appalling. Hence the scrapping

of the local navies once so eagerly supported in various countries. One thing, however, is certain. Whatever the power of aircraft may he in coastal and land war. the sea routes must depend for their protection on fighting ships freed by distance from air power, and Able to cope with submarine interference of enlarged radius. Depending as W-e do on the sea routes, we must look to the Imperial Navy, which alone can supply the necessary protection