NAVAL DEFENCE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 41, 11 October 1912, Page 3

NAVAL DEFENCE.

BEST COURSE LAID DOWN. \lly Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) (United Press Association.) Sydney, October 10. Explaining the references to the Naval Agreement, Admiral Pearce says that the 1909 conference agreed that there should bo a Pacific fleet, to which Canada and Australia should contribute units, Britain contributing the China fleet, and New Zealand, joined by the Admiralty, to give her contribution to the China station under certain conditions. The idea of regarding what should bo the class and number of ships and personnel of crews originated in a memorandum from the Admiralty, presented to the conference. , “We are,” he said, “just about completing our fleet unit under the agreement. Canada has not done so, nor lias New Zealand. With the exception of the Dreadnought presented, the Admiralty nas only the China fleet that existed at the time of the conference. I don’t presume, for a moment to* toll or suggest to the other Dominions what they should, do, but we have not hoard anything since then regarding whether the proposals an incapable of being carried out. The agreed course laid town was the best It was in line with our policy, and in every case we kept our word.”