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Hokitika Guardian, 30 July 1932, Page 4

Sveaking at thei annual meeting of the Navy League at Wellington the president said so long as British people travel in non-British ships, as they are doing, they aale l , not metaphorically but 'literally scuttling: the ships of our own mercantile marine. The subsidised mercantile, marine |r>f another country is now trading in there waters. 'The Matson Line is heavily subsidised by the United States 'Government and it is in, active competition with our own mercantile marine. We object on thei ground that so long as American wafers are closed to our mercantile marine our waters should be closed to American vessels. It is a. startling fact that the British mercantile marine has declined from 46.5 to 33.3 of the wo: id’s mhrcantile marine, and that so long as British people travel in non-British ships, as they are doing between here and Australia, in the Pacific, and between Italy through the Mediterranean, to tlr= East, so long will it enable the foreign mercantile marine to compete with ours, and so long, will we:, not metaphorically, but literally, be scuttling our own ships. The mercantile marine is to thie Navy what the Army Service Corps is to the Army, and so the branches of the Navy League, in no uncertain voice, conveyed their, views to the Prime Minister; We hope that it will be discussed at Ottawa, and some definite line of action taken between all parts of the. British Empire as against those forces which are likely to undermine the stability of our mercantile marine. We must nevler lose sight cf the fact that informed public* opinion is that the British Empire must have a .strong Navy to project her 450,000,000 people and h'cT 85,000 miles of trade routes. In 1930 through the famous —I would say infamous—T L jatv cf London we found that the strength of our Navy had to be materially diminished. Such eminent authorities at Lords Jellicoe and Bicatty said that the Empire’s minimum requirements were 76 cruisers, yet by that treaty the limit was reduced to 50. And this was .not tlve worst. With so little aWivitv. in our building yards and with ships becoming out of date and so falling into disuse, we shall by 193 G find ourselves with only 39 in tend of 50 cruisers allowed by tl"* treaty, and 70 named by Admirals J<' icoe and Beatty as the minimum f r national safely and defence.