NAVAL POWER.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 March 1921, Page 5

NAVAL POWER.

NECESSARY FOR THE EMPIRE. GUARDING SEA ROUTES. r LORD JELLICOE’S VIEWS. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Christchurch, Last Night. At an “At Home” tendered by the Canterbury branch of the Navy League to Lord Jellicoe to-night, Lord Jellicoe said he was placed in rather a difficult position, because it was not quite proper the Governor-General of the Dominion to express views on matters under the consideration of the Government. One subject which was under the consideration of the New Zealand Government and the Home Government, and which would shortly come before the Imperial Conference, was that of the naval strength of the Empire, and Lord Jellicoe went on to say: “All I hope is that the Empire will realise in future that unless its sea communications are secure in war they might as well shut up shop in the British Empire. The Navy Leagues of the British Empire must endeavor to get into the heads of young people that the whole safety of the Empire lies in ite sea communications. It is quite impossible for the Empire to exist without that safety. “You see arguments in the Press as to whether the capital ship is dead and whether submarines and aircraft are going to knock out the surface ships, but whatever happens your sea communications have got to be secured, and your sea communications, it is just as well to remember, for a great many years to come ate bound to be carried on by 1 hips that float upon the sea. The me'hod by which these ships have to be iefended is one for the consideration of 'xperts. I have my own ideas on the subject, but it is not for me to state them in the position I now occupy, but whatever method of defence it is it has to be one which will combat any menace with which it is likely to be brought into contact. If you see any nation building big capital ships, or big capital cruisers, I think it will occur to you that it is difficult to combat a menace of that sort unless you have vessels of the same class to tackle them with.”