The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1914. DOMINIONS AND THE NAVY.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 64, 14 November 1914, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1914. DOMINIONS AND THE NAVY.

(With which is incorporated The Tai hapo Post ’/.ua Waimarino News.)

Careless of censure, not too fond of fame Still free to praise, yet not afraid to blame: A verse alike to flatter or offend, Not free from faults, nor yet too vain to mend.

A comprehensive naval pc 1 icy for the British Dominions wa- expounded by Mr. Archibald Hurd in an article published shortly b 'ore the outbreak of war, and as the question c; sub. dy versus loc:i navy has recently be'u revived, it affords an interest*->g conhibution to the contro T . er~y. M the outset, Mr. Hard deplore- the tender ay among statesmen in the Dor iuions ro study the subjects of Imperial co operation in naval defence from the standpoint of political expediency, and to ignore all the historical strategical truths on the application of which the very existence of the Empire depends. The familiar argument that the Dominions will not pay as they should for a fleet, they do not see, and whose functions they do not understand, is dismissed by Mr. Hurd with the reply that “ships of war are not created to look at, but to fight,” and that “a naval organisation which is based upon the presumption that it ‘may’ be of use is doomed to failure. British naval power must be created end organised with the assurance, not that it may be, but that it will be, effective.” That is not to say that the Dominions may not, with advantage and with benefit to themselves and the Empire, develop local flotillas of cruisers and torpedo craft sufficiently strong to protect htemselves against isolated marauding cruisers But it is only by concentrated effort that the inhabitants of the British Empire can hope to win the command of the sea, and without the command of the sea, and without the comcniy by the victorious action of battle fleets, the Empire cannot exist. Every section of the Empire must develop its own defensive machinery against raid; and incidental interference with c- - merce by isolated cruisers—a nvMer of relatively small expense M> •> important than such localised e.V rt is the absolute necessity of or shining to build up battle fleets to cr mm ml the _ A .. n 1 TT I I n fj* i 1 *. fl ifi iP’llf !,CC

share in the cost and the control of the British Navy, Mr. Hurd concludes that we' are • compelled by circumstances to dismiss as unpractical at present any proposal for the tounda- ~ tjon of an imperial Admiralty drawing support in ships, men. an money, pro rata, from the several sections of the | Empire; but progress in the direction > of co-operation can be made by adopt- j ing a variation of the fleet-unit scheme, 1 which was enunciated in 1909, and < thus laying the foundations of a ( scheme which shall bo strategically sound and at the same time politically feasible.