The Navy.

Manawatu Herald, 14 October 1902, Page 2

The Navy.

There cannot be a doubt but that tha Premier, the Bt. Hon. Richard Seddon secures a grasp of the future batter and earlier than most men, and the efforts ho has made whilst in England to secure the strengthening of the Australian Squadron, which he was successful in doing, has b en a step taken only in time. The Review of Reviews for September has the following, Which is very instructive and bears out the view we have taken of our Premier's wideawakedness:—“ Franca has adopted a new naval policy, which directly affects Australia, and may at any moment become full of menace to us A new distribution of the French fleet is adopted.' Instead of being scattered through all the seas of the planet, it is to be grouped in two great strategic units, each with a distinct base, so that war would find French naval strength concentrated at vital points. One of these twm divisions is to command the Pacific .and Indian oceans. It has three bases —at New Caledonia, Madagascar, and Cochin-China—and within that strategic triangle will be a most formidable squadron, able to strike with overwhelming strength at any point of the area it covers Such a squadron, for example, if launched at Australia, would shatter our existing naval defences as with a breath. The distribution of the British fleet will, no doubt, have to be re-cast to meet this new and formidable stratagem adopted by the French Admiralty ; but Great Britain has so many points to guard, and so many trade routes to cover, that a concentration of its naval force or anything like the new French scale will be difficult. It is clear that under these conditions Australia and New Zealand might suddenly discover that they are face to face with warlike peril on a very formidable scale.”