DOMINION DEFENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 24 December 1919, Page 5

DOMINION DEFENCE.

IMPORTANCE OF A NAVY. . EXPERIENCES OF THE WAR. THE FAILURE OF FORTS, By Telegraph—Praes Association* Wellington, lost Night'. Lieut-Commander Bourke, Who was in charge of motor launch 2791 at the blocking operations at Ostend in April and May, 1018, was accordsd a welcome at the Town Hall this altar*. nooti- , ' Commander Bourke, replying, nwi> tioived that he was not in Nerw Zealand in an official capacity, and therefore any, opinions expressed by him were simply, his own personal views. He continued: "I think myself New Zealand was never in greater need tMHty now of an Imperial Navy capable in tto event of war of keeping an enamy flKti from putting to sea. I havefO®« to this conclusion after my experience working with monitors on the Bdgfm coast. The monitors patrolled Up thai Belgian coast daily, escorted by destroy*] era, and bombarded whenever tkejj wished to. They went within tOk spa twenty miles of the coast in broad dfp4 light and under cover of a smoke screen) they bombarded with absolute impunityj Motor launches made a dense bank ofl . smoke between the monitors and 4w shore batterieß, and I do not know of W single instance of a monitor being mipyi an enemy shell throughout the opeta*] tiona.

"If Ostend had not been a Bilging port the monitors could quite easily feitvej destroyed it. In the tnggast bombaWM ment there were eight monitors witiM 12-in and 18-in gum, and each monifcjfl was firing at the rate of one ttßftdi every thirty seconds. Bach shell TffcM capable of - completely wrecking * i(W building. If this terrific fire had bjip concentrated on Ostend instead of «H| enemy batteries and coastal defeMM., you can imagine what the effect wottkf * have been. "Almost all the important towns in New Zealand are on or near the codtf> and in the event of war and tlie &i* perial Navy being defeated, fha* i* nothing to prevent the enemy from couH ing within ten' or twenty miles of th*( coast in daytime under cover of a amokaii screen and destroying tows after towttj with impunity. j "The enemy had batteries on the BsM gian coast, mounting 225 guns along W stretch of twelve miles, and 186 of tfcesk

guns were from 6-inch to 15-htcb, guns ranging up to twenty mllet If. New Zealand, batteries mounted th» same number of guns per mills M thpj enemy did on the Belgian coast, which of course ia quite impossible, they wouldj still be absolutely powerless to prevent' an enemy fleet in daytime under coTeflt of a smoke screen from deetroyiflg town' rafter town.

"It is on' account of this that I hava. come to the conclusion that the onlyi safety for the towns of New Zealand, im the event of war is to have an Imperial Navy capable of holding an enemy navy from proceeding to sea. In order to have a strong navy it is esientitl you should have a strong Navy League, Wad I think there was no time when the/workof the Navy League was of greater ln< portance than now."