DEFENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 119, 7 October 1912, Page 7

DEFENCE.

PROPOSALS BY MR. MYERS.

(By Telegraph.—Own Correspondent) Wellington, Saturday.

11l the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon, Mr. Myers (Auckland East) gave notive to ask the Prime Minister whether, in view of the suggested visit to Canada of the First Lord of the Admiralty (accompanied possibly hy a battleship squadron), with the object of placing on a timer basis the Imperial relations between Canada and the Mother Country in matters of defence, he will communicate with the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, with a view to sending a joint invitation to Mr. Churchill to extend his visit to the Australasian colonies, so that the Commonwealth and Dominion Governments may be in a position which will enable them to formulate a policy of common defence, based on a practical federation of the Empire? In an attached note, Mr. Myers said that this ■ftould be especially advantageous to. Xew Zealand, as no members of the present Government have been privileged to hear the secrets of defence and foreign policy laid bare by the Imperial Defence Committee. It is also admitted on all sides that the visit of Lord Kitchener was of incalculable benefit in the inauguration of the compulsory military training scheme, and it is equally apparent that a visit from the First Lord of the Admiralty, besides serving the above purpose, would not only stimulate interest throughout the Dominion in Imperial matters, but would tend to enlighten the people on the facts which dictate Great Britain's foreign policy. The occasion would also afford a unique and valuable opportunity for a conference on matters of defence between Australia and Xew Zealand.