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Hokitika Guardian, 19 June 1923, Page 2

Continuing bis address referred to above, Sir Samuel said that what after all was by far the mc.st urgent and the most important problem was the problem of the defence of those, islands. Fp to a comparatively recent date, thanks to the splendid efficiency of the Navy, these shores had lieen practically immune from the possibility of foreign invasion. The advent of air power hud made the Channel no longer the barrier that it was in the past. He must maintain a Navy of a definite standaid and we must he certain also that our air power was adequate for the defence of these islands. Judged by every standard of defence our Air Force at- present was not strong enough. How it would develop, and to what si7X' it would develop, he could not tell them in detail. All he could say was that just ns the Committee of Imperial Defence was considering questions of the relations between tlie three lighting Services, so it was com entrating its attention upon this great and overwhelming important proniem of homo defence. More than that he could not say that day. A further aspect of the problem of the air hardly second in importance was that, ol Imperial air com mimical ions. He did not suppose then' was another country in the world that had more to gain than the British Empire hv developing iII its communications. Suppose we could bring India within, say seventy or eighty hours of these shores by another development of air communication, think of the immense value it would he to the Empire, whethoi wo regarded it from the point of view of trade and industry, the interchange of ideas, or from the point of view ol Imperial strategv on the urgent need of frequent consultations between the I’rime Ministers oi the Dominions. As Secretary for Air he had asked that this question of Imperial air communications should have a prominent place upon the agenda cf the Imperial Conference next autumn. He wished to see the British Empire take the lead in air developments; not tho third ctr fourth air power in the world, hut the greatest in the world. AVe could produce better machines and engines than anyone else, we had good scientists, and our lesearehes won' as good as any other Great Power. In the last few weeks wo had produced the biggest engine and the smallest engine in the world, which showed that, given a chance, British research and industry could produce as good, if not better, aircraft, alid liettcr machines than anv other country.

In connection with the Belgian political crisis, the hone of contention is the proposal by tho Flnmingant deputies that- the French-speaking secular University at Ghent shall be conceited into a Flemish University. They are reproached with taking up the work, which the German authorities Ix'gnn during the occupation, of abolishing Latin culture from the Fleming )ait of Belgium. They are also accused ol endangering the unity of the country. For three weeks last November Hie Chamber of Deputies discussed the question with great liveliness. The Flaniingants suggested that a referendum should ho held nil the question. The Government opposed this sugostion ns being unconstitutional, and it was defeated on November 29th by 147 votes to 2ii. The question lias more than once provoked disorders in Ghent. The partisans of the Flemish movement come into conflict with their opponents several times during November and the police had to inteiveno. The question has become a very hitter one in Ghent. On December 19th the Chamber rejected, by 97 votes to 82, with four abstentions, a proposal that the lectures in the University should he duplicated that is to say, that instruction should he given in Flemish ns well as in French. An amendment that the teaching should bo given in Flemish and that in tho faculties sixty hours per annum should he devoted to lessons in French-was adopted hv 8-5 votes to 89, with 12 abstentions. AATicu the result of the vote was announced, M. Paul Hymans cried, “Let us hope that the Senate will save the country-'' On learning of this decision, the. students of the University of Liege and tho students of Brussels decided to go on strike for two days as a protest. According to the Brussels correspondent of ‘'The Times”, what was offending the great mass of public opinion was that, although both the Chamber and the nation as a whole recognised the necessity. of creating a Flemish University, the Flaniingants wanted to build the latter on the ruins of the old French University of Ghent,