THEIR FACTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16484, 25 February 1914, Page 8

THEIR FACTS.

Some of the Reform newspapers, not gifted with much sense of humour, are complaining that Sir Joseph Ward is making a party question out of the dominion’s naval policy. They conveniently forget that they themselves were enthusiastic supporters of the single Imperial fleet until the Government abandoned this sane proposal and put forward the Hon James Allen’s local navy scheme. They make no attempt at all to show that the leader of the Opposition has deviated in the slightest degree from the line of policy he pursued when in office. We do not propose to cover this ground again just now, but we must confess to some curiosity when wo find the ministerial organs talking of “the unsatisfactory naval position in the South Pacific ” and “ the situation which has driven the Government to contemplate the building of a New Zealand cruiser.” What precisely are the necessities or dangers at which the Reformers hint? The salient fact of the naval situation to-day is the existence of a great Imperial fleet too formidable to be treated lightly by any Power or possible combination of Powers. New Zealand lies secure under the shadow of that fleet and obviously will neither add to its own security nor ease the burden of the Imperial authority by building n cruiser or two for local service. It is true that the Empire’s fighting ships are largely > concentrated in European waters, but that is not to say they do not count in the Pacific, where no issue affecting British interests could be decided in disregard of the Imperial mandate. The naval Powers within tho Pacific are Japan and the' United States, and if New Zealand spent every penny of its public revenuo on ships it would still be as a dwarf to a giant in comparison with either of these armed nations. Japan is Britain’s ally and if ever the alliance is ended the cause will be the inability of the Japanese to agree with the Americans, whose friendship the British people value too highly to risk losing. The one cloud upon the Pacific horizon is this Japanese-American difference, which cannot be held to contain any element of danger for the British dominions. What, then, are the factors that make it desirable, in the estimation of the Reformers, for

New Zealand to spend money on an insignificant local fleet while the Mother Country bears the whole burden cf Imperial naval defence? It is no reply to say that parochial pride would be gratified by the display of dominion ships in dominion waters or to talk at large of “policing tho Pacific,” an ocean that belongs to China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the Latin-American republics, to say nothing of France and Germany, as well as to the British dominions. We suggest that the Reformers leave party alone for a little while and get to work on their own policy.