Guarding the Pacific.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 44, 21 February 1914, Page 5

Guarding the Pacific.

NAVAL ARRANGEMENTS. NEW ZEALAND’S SHARE. [By Electric Telegraph—Copyright] tunited Press Association. l London, February 20. The Times regrets the disagreement between New Zealand and the Admiralty, and says the change oi j policy was produced through the faillure to provide Pacific defence in a Iw ay to make New Zealand feel seicure. AN AUSTRALIAN OPINION. ; SUGGESTED CO-OPERATION. Sydney, February 20. Apropos New Zealand’s note to the Admiralty on naval matters, the Sun’s Melbourne correspondent says that New Zealand, happily and appropriately. has come as a factor in the Australian Cabinet’s considerations as to j what is to be done about the Cockai too Island dock. New Zealand has at last begun to grope her way towards a local navy. Here, then, by the end of next year or early the • following year, will be within the South Pacific another light cruiser. Here, moreover, will lie the beginning of what must inevitably be a rapidly developed New Zealand navy. Here, therefore, is another reason why Australia should not depart from the plans and recommendations to lay down a fourth cruiser. Australians will wish New Zealanders the best of Luck in the initiation of their local navy, and will await the moment when they can salute the New Zealand ■miser. Negotiations are still being put before the dominions. ’ Vessels have been ordered, but now that the Massey Government has declared for a ocal navy policy, it is only a matter of time for the two sister fleets to manoeuvre together in the South. Seas, and ultimately the two naval stations will be linked as one. With the opening of the splendid new Australian Naval College at Jervois Bay early next year, it seems a suitable time for the renewal of the invitation to New Zealand to send her boys to be trained as naval officers. Although the actual inauguration of New Zealand’s navy still depends largely on the Imperial Defence Conference early next year, the main fact that New Zealand has declared that she must have modern cruisers in her waters ;ml will see that she gets them, has to be considered in connection with the Australian ship-building '•programme. NEW ZEALAND FORCED. Times— Sydney Sun Special Cables. (Received 8 a.m.) London, February 20. The Times, in a leader on New Zealand defence, states that the Dominion vas forced to separate naval action it rough Britain’s failure to provide j or the adequate defence of the Pacific, w hilst she has also appropriated the gift battleship which should have made and maintained Britain’s prestige in the Pacific. The articles continues: “This may be sound and necessary strategy, but its effect on Imperial interests is certain to be detrimental.”