NAVAL DEFENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, 21 January 1922, Page 5

NAVAL DEFENCE.

POLICY OF DOMINION. VALUE OF H.M.S. CHATHAM, SECURITY IN THE PACIFIC. By Telegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. The naval defence policy of the Dominion was discussed in the House of Representatives to-day, when the first item taken in consideration of the estimates was a sum of £335,782 for naval defence. Mr. G. Witty (Riccarton) moved a reduction of the vote : by £lO as an indication that the expenditure on H.M.S. Chatham was unnecessary. Mr. Massey said every country in the Empire must in future contribute to the navy. If they did away with the Chatham to-morrow they would not save anything, as they would then have to pay a subsidy to the Imperial Navy; while we maintained the Chatham jve were not required to pay a further subsidy. The ship could be useful in many ways in training New Zealanders for a sea career and to render assistance to ships in trouble at sea, or protect residents of the islands in case of native uprisings. The Imperial Government had asked New Zealand to take over the Union group near Samoa, but he said New Zealand was not prepared to do more than police the islands. He mentioned in passing that the battle-cruisers Australia and New Zealand would shortly be scrapped as obsolete, and the latter was not yet paid for; the payments had another six years to run. Mr. Massey quoted an occasion when the Tutanekai was sent to Fiji at the latter’s urgent request to assist in the protection of the residents when they were in danger of an Indian and native revolt for two or three weeks. If they had had a ship like the Chatham available much time could have been saved and a grave risk minimised. Mr. Massey said the Washington Conference had done good work and he believed the shadow of war had been lifted from the Pacific for years to come, but New Zealand could not neglect Imperial duties. J lf we had had a vessel like the Chatham during the war an enemy raider would not have been able to work the destruction around our coasts that was done. Mr Massey added that when the Chatham became obsolete the Imperial Government would, replace her with a new and faster ship at no cost to New Zealand. Mr. H. *E. Holland (Leader of the Labor Party) said if the ships were to be used as strike-breakers, as he contended was the case with the Tutanekai at Fiji, then the expenditure on them could not be justified. The Hon. Sir R. Heaton Rhodes (Minister for Defence) said the Chatham had done good work in policing the islands and survey work. She would also be useful as a means of defence against a (raider in war time. Regarding aviation and submarines, the Government could not formulate its final policy until the decisions of the Washington Conference were known. The amendment was lost by 55 vote's to 10.