OUR NAVY READY.

Taranaki Daily News, 7 August 1915, Page 9

OUR NAVY READY.

ifR. CHURCHILL SPEAKS. At Dundee on Saturday, .Tune 5, .Mr, Winston Churchill, now Chancellor of 11»! Duchy of Lancaster, addressed 2 lion-warty gathering of his constituents. He said:'—

I have not come here to trouble you Willi persciiitl matters or enrbark on explications, ior to indulge in reproaches or ruiunii'.ations. In war time a man mu.-t d 0 hi; duty as hi; sees it, and take his luck as it come., or goes. I will not i-ay a wrril hen- or in Parliament which I "cannot truly feel will have a useful hearing upon the nnly thing that matters, the tiily thins [ caie about, tiie on'.y thin;; I waul you to think about—namely, the waging of vietorious war upon the enemy.

EOFR YEARS AT Till'. ADMIRALTY. I wa--, sent to the Admiralty in Bill, alter the Asiadir crisis had nearly brought us into war, and I was sent with the express duty laid upon me' by the Prime .Minister'to p'lt the fleet in a state of instant and constant readiness for war in case we were attacked by tie! many. Since then, for nearly four u'nrs 1 have home the heavy burden of being, according to the time-honored language of my patent, "responsible to Crown and Parliament for all the business of the Admiralty'—and when 1 say re-ponsible, 1 have been responsible in this real s.mse: that I hare had the hlsme for everything that has gone wrong. (Laughter and cheers), Those years have comprised the most important period in our naval history—a period of preparation for war, n 'period of vigilance and mobiii-ation, and a period ol actual war ■under conditions of which no man had any experience. I have done my best, and the nivhives of the Ad-, m'inilty will show in the utmost detail the pa'r.t I have played in all the grfat transactions that have taken place, and it is to them I look for my defence. .1 'lock r.lso to the general naval situation. The terrible dangers of the beginning of the war are over. The seas have been swept clear, the submarine menace lias been fixed within definite limits, the pel.-dial ascendancy of cur men, the supeiior quality or our ships onMhe high seas, have been established beyond doubt ov question. Our strength has greatly increased actually apd relatively from what it was in the beginning oi the war, and it grows continually every day byhaps and bounds in all the classes of vessels needed for the special purposes of the war. •• INCREDIBLE " REINFORCEMENTS. Between now and the end of the year the British Navy will receive reinforcements which would be incredible if tliey were not actual facts. Everything is in perfect order. Nearly everything has been foreseen —all our supplies, stores, ammunition, appliances of every kind and drafts of oftieors and men, ail are there. Nowhere will yon ba hindered. You have taken the measure of your foe. You have, only to go forward with confidence. On the whole surface of the seas of the world no hostile Hag is flown. (Loud cheers). In that achievement T shall always be proud to have had a share. My charge now passes to another hand, and it is my duty to do everything in my power to, give my successor loyal support, In act, in word, and in thought. (Cheers), I S ni very glad indeed thst Mv. Balfour—(cheers)—has been able to undertake Hi's great la-k. The operations which ■•re now proceeding «t the Dardanelles will give him the opportunity of using that quality of cool, calm courage and inflexibility which 13 years ago prevented Ladysmlth front being IcTt to its fate and surrendered to the enemy, THE DARDANELLES. 1 have two things! to say to you about the Dardanelles. Yon must expect losses both by land and sea,„biit the. licet you are employing there is your surplus fleet after all other needs have been provided for. Had it not been used in this great enterprise, it would have been lying idle in your southern ports. A large number of the old vessels of which it is composed have to be laid up in a.ny ease before the end of the year, because their crews are wanted for the enormous reinforcements offiiew ships which the industry of your workshops is hurrying into the water. Losses of ships, thereto! c, as long as the precious lives of the oflii-cr-. and men are saved—which in r.carly every .case they have been—'osses oi that kind, I say. may easily be exaggerated in the minds both of friend and foe. .Military operation?, -will nUo lie. eo.-dlv. but thn~e who sup-pose that f.oi-,1 Kitchener—(loud cheers) —lias embarked upon them without narrowly and -arefully considering their requirements in relation to all other needs, and in nlation to the par-amount need of our . army in France and Flanders,—such peo. pie arc mistaken, and not only mistaken, they are presumptuous.