NAVAL SUPREMACY.

Taihape Daily Times, 30 August 1919, Page 3

NAVAL SUPREMACY.

I PROT}:ICTION on TRADE, EMI’IRE’S CHIEF I\’EED_ _ i SHARE OF THE DOMINIO;\'.S. i WELLINGTON, Aug, 20. i A striking 3'PP€a-1 for the cO-opera-ltioll Of TllO Dominion: in maintaining , the British Navy in its rightful place [as Mistress of the Seas, was made by ‘Lord Jellicoe today, at-. 3, mncheon ‘given in his hoiiour at the New Zea. land Club. Among H 1059 present were Sir ‘Joseph Ward, Sir James Amen‘ and Commander Williams, naval adviser. Lord JOINCOO, in the course of his remarks, said much of the naval power Of the Empire depended on the mercantile marine. But for the mercantile marine, the war would have been over about 1915, and he did not know what would have happened to New Zealand in that case. The navy was absolutely essential to the Empire. There was a tendency, since peace was pl'OCl3llllCd, T 0 think that t}lcl‘e was no hurry to be I'eady for the next war. History showed that one xx».-M breeds another, and that “if you want to be at peace you must prepare :or war." “Thel'efol'e,” he said, “I strongly urge my fellow countrymen not to be penny wise and pound foolish, because the cost of being ready for war was infinitesmal, compared with the cost of one month of war, and we would be illadvised if we listened to any ;<rlgg » tion that there is no occasion to be in a. hurry to get our defences into proper I order.” , “They ‘had only to look round the } world, he continued, to see that the mil. tlennium was -as far off as it ever has‘ been. The Pacific Ocean was growingl in importance .every day. It contained great possibilities of trouble. There; were elements which might give rise to‘, future international complications, but: Statesmen would get more easily over those if they had =3 strong right arnni They wanted a striking force——a trade‘ protective force, and a force for the; protection of ‘harbours. He had en-'* deavoured to separate those forces in a report he had presented ‘to Australia. Ever "since 190.2, \_th,ey had‘ been gradually weakening Bi-'itain’s naval, forces abroad, with the resutlt that‘ when the crash came the forces out here were, inadequate to protect British trade. The experiences of the war had shown _.ihow diiiicult it ‘was ‘to hunt down even one enemy raider. The Emden, for instance, had many narrow escapes, few people knew how narrow. One of these escapes was when the Hampshire passed within ten miles of her in the early morning in a raini squall_ The Moewe and the Wolf were similiar,'instances. 'Tll'e ditficulty of! preventing the escape of raiders wasi greater than ever, and, therefore, the] number of vessels required for trade proteetion was greater than ever before. They needed a great many more cruisers than» they had before the war. There was only one system of protecting trade. and that was oy convoy, and - they had to see that they possessed‘ sufiieient. ships for the purpose. Tlit,,‘_Yi could not do that without paying for.‘ it, and it would help the Mother Coun-‘ try if the Dominions shouTed aloudi their intention that the British navy should not go down. As to militarism, the British Navyi was a. defensive force. which had never been used aggressively. What‘ was needed was co-operation between the Dominions and the Mother Country,

‘and he hoped the spirit displayed by t.he Dominions would work for the good of -the great inheritance which had been handed down by their fiorefathers.. Finally, the Admiral thvallked New Zealand for its gift. years ago of an inscription on the wheel of the ba’otle~ ship New Zealand: “Akc, ARC, Kai Kaha.” That was now in tlle museum, but he undefstood that it was to be again inscribed, and he could 'aSSlll‘O them that it would be a signal call-to all on board to do all that could be ‘done for the glory of the Empire. ‘