NAVY LEAGUE MEETS

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1037, 30 July 1930, Page 11

NAVY LEAGUE MEETS

PROTECTION OF TRADE LANES DISCUSSED NEEDS OF NEW ZEALAND Press Association DUNEDIN. Tuesday Ai the annual conference of the Dominion branches of the Navy League, Mr. J. W. Smith, the president. stressed the need for a sufficiently powerful navy to patrol the Pacific trade lanes. After the Mayor's official welcorv . Mr. Smith said Britain refused to believe that the virtue that impelled past achievements was exhausted in th*» nation. Self- sacrifice could go s«> far as to become an inferiority complex and it should be remembered that at least two and probably three other nations had developed a converse complex of superiority. The most astounding event in the naval world was the recent conference, as a result of which it was clear that Britain had reduced herself to an inferior position to the United States. Xew Zealand was only really a sea Dominion of the Empire an«l required nothing less than a complete unit of the Royal Navy to patrol its trade lanes. Mr. Dougall. of Canterbury, alst» spoke strongly on the serious position the Empire had been placed in by tit decisions of the Xaval Conference. Auckland remits urging the earlier*: completion of the Singapore Xaval Base were carried. Lieutenant-Com-mander Connors pointing out that the United States had a wonderfully efficient bsxsc at Pago Pago within easy striking distance of East Australia, Xew Zealand and British Columbia.