NEW BATTLESHIP WANTED.

Taihape Daily Times, 12 September 1919, Page 5

NEW BATTLESHIP WANTED.

“NEW ZEALAND OBSOLETE.” APPEAL BY SHIP’S BOSTJN CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 10. A homely appeal for the maintenance of naval supremacy anß the gift of a second battleship was made to-day by the chief boatswain of H.M.S. New Zealand. He found himself responding to the very hearty welcome of a gathering of typical country folk at Oxford, and he declared with obvious sincerity that every man of the battleship was quite at home in New Zealand, whether it be city, town, village, or hamlet. The reception they had met would go down with them to the grave.

“I am going to do a Salvation Army turn,” the boatswain added, mounting a chair in the familiar style of a man about to appeal for a collection. He declared very simply that he was ready to do what little he could to strengthen Lord Jellicoe’s arm in th matter of Empire defence. Very emphatically he assuered his audience that H.M.S. ■New Zealand was ahsolete, although the men of the bulldog breed were the right stuff. “We want a new shtp, to he called the New Zealand,? he said. “It makes you smile, but I mean it in all sincerity.” “Tell them you want a new Hood,” a messmate remarked.

“They wouln’t understand that at first,” the boatswain answered. “But that is what we want. The Hood is the latest battle-cruiser, not completed yet ,bat costing something like four million pounds. She is a magnificent ship, and if you ever get the opportunity, go and see her, no matter where you live, if you have to go by airship.”