Our Navy.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2097, 23 April 1898, Page 3

Our Navy.

Now that the present Atafce of' th< “Empire is -in/ a . somewhat unsettle*! state, h, speech delivered in the Imperial . Parliaiiient -by Mr WilliariiAließ, sot of Mr 8. Alien, of Annandale, m Monday, March. 14tli lf on the preseui position of the be of Hitey est to our reader 1..- Mr Allen uoifl *mehced by saying that lie <li«l not. wia . to make any attack .upon the Admiralty because, ho regarded this question as of such' tranScendaUt importance as to -be outside the circle of party politics., Th* idea underlying the -speeches of a 1) min< iisters .hiad always been that oiir navy should be equal to the combined navies of anytwc ot'ter countries, It was., the admiitec . standard, and, common groand on bo~h sides of the Hviise »b the irreducible tnin« iuium from which this country ought pot under any circumstances allow its fleet to fall,-but as a matter; of fa/t he would, bj( able t”© show, that we were, weaker now than ■ we were in 1889 or in 1894, add in relation to France and, we should; be still ■ weaker next year. Yet the First Lord of - the Admiralty said w« progress- It could be proved ,fiOm the Admiralty returns that-.with regard to France and Kussia-rthh next twp.strongest navies—that we were weaker than we were ten ' years a 'go. «He would only take first and second-class Vbattleships, because it . would be upon these we should have to 'dependin-war. In 1889gland;.had82; France and Russia,2l: in'lß94,' England bad 31; France and a 25,; in 1897, England had 35 ; France tttl Russia 33 ; while in 1869 we should have 46; while prance and Russia would have 45 battleships.' So that faking the Admiralty's own figures we were weaker in relation to France and Russia than we were ten years ago. (Cheers), We Imd only increased by 14 while they bad increased by 24. Of course this was after making allowances for ships which had- been .removed to a lower class or been struck off .the list.; We were drifting into a V«iy/kinoua;pQ*it»6ai,

Tho delay caused by the engineer* strike . of the past year had left os seriously be* Iliad. To make this country safe we ought ,to have spoilt <2s million.: more in construction than ha 4 been spent. Of the four battleships which the First Lord bad promised-should be completed by this time only .one, the Ctesar was, ready. Two others would be launched shortly, but they had been delayed, and also the six ships of the Canopus class, Th : consequence of the 'strike we should be twelve months behind w,th our construction work for 'some years J to Come , and If we were td gc to war with any combination ,of Great Continental' Powers our position would be a very. serious:one.: (Hear, bear,)‘ Jjrance and Russia were beginning to build extraordinarily ‘ fast, so' that the great advantage which we used to have over them when they\ were building very slowly and we were building comparatively fast was rapidly vanishing.: .'for they wer<- now building almost if not quite'as fast, as ourselves, Ihenifcwas said that our ships were much larger than ,‘i tLoseofFrance and Russia ; ;but that was /more an apparent than a real' advantage, bemuse our. ships had to/carry so much ■ uiore coal,ao that additional; size did not, generally additional armament, buS* additional coal-cairying power. An- ■ qtherictirious'iilefecd ihf the- vessels. whioh figured in the Admiralty retarnsbf effective second class batb.eships’was that ; eight of them were armed guus He asked if the First Lord proposed to, rearm them, w! A her it Would be possible'tb. t . i la-armthein,-'.or whether it would hot be better to bund uew ships, H<iWfever : that . might be* he maintained that the Admiralty were hot justified in counting those autongat their 1 ships which were, capable of meeting r *ships of a: ’foreign power; v j, iu ; number,’ ih strength, or in anuameutv ha, did hot think that we had thiit/aupWtorifcy yto any two other .Powers in the world 'that : bud always been maintained da the-irredUr ' oible standard that this country, ought:to have. But even that standard was hot. one which was regarded as sufficient by '• naval experts by whom they wera toldthak it . would nof be possible to blockade the enemy's ships with & less superiority: than five to three. If the Ad miralty did not,accept that view of experts os the standard, w4xfia they give the reasons whythey did not do ; so. Bat the Government on one occasion gave a standard which they thought was a sufficient one, for in- the return for 1889 the Secretary of State for India, who ,was then

the FiratLord of the Admiralty, told them that the standard this country should aim at was: six to five in firsUclaes battleships. Wef, were/ below all those standards, afad therefore he cpuldnottbink fchat the estimates which the First Lord, bad presented to the., house that day were in ally ,waJ? satisfactory, in al those standards it had beencouteroplatedfcfaafcifeyerwe 'went to war it would be against a corn hip® ation of two Powers but it seemed to him that, with enr great cotntnerce and its dependence on our navy,..we ought to consider ; V n possibility of a still stronger combination being brought against UP- ( Hear, heal?) During the last fewv weess.when there had; ; l«sa wars and rumours of wars, there had be jn the possibility :of W stronger coinhip® litionthaneventhe:two l .strongest Bowers: /•xln every, part of the worid thcre were coni® plications ariaiag wtth fchree great foreign . Powers i we.e differences in ' VVest Africa wifch'Qerrpahy and' France, thereX differences in Northern China: with: iRussia, and at any time we may be called '• v upon: by a combination of throe Powers to evacuate Egypt, so that it seemld to him ' we should be prepared to meet that possible combination. We had adopted what the Colonial Secretary called a ' splendid isolation ’ disregarding all alliances, a policy . with which he ( Mr Allen) agreed, because when the critical tim® came he feared .we cohid not depend upon our alliances ; ' but -Siiif that,- was the settled policy of the country - wemuat'Wprovided ag&inet every eventuality, He believed that an all powerful < navy which could be capable ef crushing any possible combination brought against uj- would be. to the best possible interest. Xpot of war, but of peace, A. war now between England and a combination of great Powers would be a war of limited liability on our part. He did not believe we could seriously damage them, but if our navy were beaten, then they could starve us out and crash us oqt in every other part of the World. Franco and Russia were about tp spend large sums.’of'money off their navies, and he urged upon the First Lord .to press' the new ships and their armament forward as fast as possible. ..to* thujpaijwisprs, there had baeh ‘the Powerful and Terriblft-we&e unsatisfactory vessels; he had heard one 'statement that tho engines were too naanyfor the ships; : and it certainly seemed that there must be something seriously wrong from the time that was taken by the Powerful in going XrOufc to China,. Inregard to;.the. manning of the. fleet, if he had heard the First Lord!s ... .speech before putting down the resolution , : which he had on the paper/he should have taken ships as the object of -his attack in* stead of men, because it Beamed to him on j

the present statement th at we were more deficient inahips than in men. He did not think that the' explanation of the First , Lord of the Admiralty with regard to buys was very satisfactory, Then the programme of reconstruction he had laid before the House showed great- weakness in ships—it showed ;that they had fallen lamentably from the standard to which the House had given its sanction,Ann therefore he begged -to Wove his resolution -V That the House desires to see a fuller provision for manning the fleet. (Cheers.) . ' ’ - Lord C. Betvsford seconded, but after some debate the amendment was negatived without a division. The discussion was continued by Mr G. Webster. Sir U; Kay.,; Sbuttlewdrth. nnd Sir C. iDilke, and. after a brief reply by Mr Goschen, the mutioni that the Speaker should leave the Chair was agreed to. and the House formally went into Committee.