OUR NAVAL POLICY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 41, 9 July 1914, Page 5

OUR NAVAL POLICY.

WHAT DID MR. ALLEN SAY IN ' AUSTRALIA? DR. McNAB'S DISCLOSURES. By Telegraph—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. When Dr. McNab was in Sydney, Oie was astonished to find on reading the papers and in discussing the matter witli Press reporters, that the opinion was universally held in the city that New Zealand had embarked on a naval policy on all fours with that of the Commonwealth, and that the Dominion intended to have a fleet of its own in Pacific waters. He told this to a reporter of the Times, who interviewed him on his return from Australia to-day, and lie said he lhad done what he could to dissipate the wrongful idea. , "It was with difficulty," he remarked, '■' that I persuaded them that the members of the Ministry themselves repudiated any such policy, though they were in a large measure opposed to the Liberal policy of direct contribution to the Navy. He was assured that our Minister for Defence, Hon. Jas. Allen, when in Australia, had conveyed the impression of a New Zealand navy to the Press there. I could only reply that if that were his policy, then the. policy of the Ministry of to-day had undergone serious modification. I also stated that although there was a material difference between the intention of the present Government and the policy of Sir Joseph Ward's Ministry, I had no doulit whatever that the coming general election would secure a return to the Ward policy. To this I added that the,. shadow of coming' events was responsible for the uncertainty which prevailed in Cabinet circles to-day regarding their naval policy." Dr. McNab went on to say that tire reports which had recently been ma.le public in Australia regarding the building of their_navy in Sydney were causing a good deal of division of opinion in the Commonwealth, and fear was openly expressed that unless some radical change, took place in the methods of construction, etc., the delay in turning out ■the vessels at Sydney would result in •half the efficient life of the ships being lost.