BOMBS AND SHELLS IN NEW ZEALAND.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 127, 1 February 1915, Page 2

BOMBS AND SHELLS IN NEW ZEALAND.

WHY ARE THERE NONE? THE NAVAL SITUATION IN A NUTSHELL. (By TftOS. E. ftOYDHOUSE.) “I goo that they are dropping bombs on England again,” remarks the Man in the Street. ”1 don ; t know why they don’t stop these Zeppelins, somehow.” There are quite a few things the Man in the (Street does not know. But he is learning. This i* an opportunity for him to learn more.

Does he know why there are no bombs —or, at any rate, shells—being dron’ - ’ .ii New Zealand? He must that as part of an Empire at war, we have no better inherent right to escape the horrors than any other part. He will admit this, if it is pushed right up against him. Yet, at the back of his mind, he retains the thought, in a little casket of self-satis-faction, that immunity is due to some rare virtue possessed only by the outlying parts of the Dominion. His thought is not well defined. It is nebulous. in fact; but, nevertheless, it is permanently there. We are better than others, therefore are spared punishment. But what is the truth in regard to the position? Lot the Little Navyite specially attend to the statement of it. There are no bombs or shells being dropped upon Now Zealand because the British Imperial fleets are strong enough to keep the German navy bottled up. If the British fleets were not strong enough, the German ones would be out and engaging them, and defeating them. That is the main pivotal fact of the nresent war situation, so far as the Overseas Dominions are concerned. It is beyond challenge. If it is admitted, how much more is admitted ? Why. that the Baby Navy policy is folly, and that the only way of securing Imperial safety—and most particularly the safety of the outlying parts—is to pool ho defence resources of he Empire, and place them under one control, so that they may be used where they will do us most good.

Now. the smartest tacticians of the period up to the date of commencing he war. were the Germans. The British are improving every day. and the longer the wav lasts the better they will bo. But the Germans were better at the outset because they had made an allout constant study of international conditions. and the methods of various countries. The British could never concentrate on this study to the same extent, because while some of their countrymen advised preparation for the coming struggle, others denounced the advisers, and declared that it was wicked even to think that there would ever be a struggle. The point in this connection is this —the Germans have had in view the possibility of whittling away the British naval supremacy by sniping warships, one by one, by submarines, Zeppelins, or torpedoers, without risking any of their own capital ships. We have now broken the shell of the nut, and are right at the kernel —for the special benefit of advocates of the local navy. Is it not clear that the smaller the British naval force utilised in bottling up the Germans the better the chance of the Germans in removing the disparity in weight? Is it not equally clear that if the Overseas Dominions had always provided their proper proportion of the Imperial Navy it would be larger than it is to-day?—so large, in fact, that the Germans might have realised the hopelessness of undertakng a war in which it would be a factor in opposition. Now. look further. Suppose the British fleets now in the north were weakened by four battleships and proportionalo cruisers and mosquito craft, in order to provide local navies for Canada. New Zealand. South Africa, and Eastern possessions? Would not the Germans have had that much easier task? • When the great navies of the rival Powers met, the fate of our Empire is at once in the balance. If the enemy wins New Zealand is clown and out. even if there wore a local navy of teatimes the strongtht of the present one patrolling the coast of Australia, which people seem to forget is a continent. We are not getting bombs or shells on New Zealand towns, or seeing our dag hauled down and another one hoisted, not because of any marvellous inborn merit of ours, but because the people of the Old Land have put up sufficient money to provide a navy that the Gormans dare not come out and attack, That is where and how our safety is secured. That is why we can still afford to peruse the war news with iyawn, and demand why doesu't Jellicoe do this or that; why we can still enjoy our bowls tournaments, our race meetings, our yachting. And most of those who enjoy |ho peace thus secured fail to realise it, and ask that we shall imperil future safety by frittering away our substance on local navies, which cannot defend.