THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1908. THE AUSTRALIAN NAVY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9137, 9 July 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY THURSDAY, JULY 9, 1908. THE AUSTRALIAN NAVY.

The Federal Assembly has passed a vote of £250,000 towards the establishment of an Australian Navy. The vote is satisfactory from the point of view that it represents the expressed will of the people of the Commonwealth to construct, man, and maintain a Navy that shall be peculiarly Australian, and solely for the defence of Australia. Of course there are many pessimists who ridicule what they are pleased to term "The Exercise of Australia's imitative Faculty," but their views, narrow at their widest point, may safely be disregarded. It is averred, both at Home and on the Continent, that the Colonials take no real interest in the affairs of the Mother Country apart from the commercial and selfish side, and that to them the Navy is only a name which they are pleased to remember when convenient. Semi-truthful as this is, it is ; not the whole truth. It is true that the average Colonial dees not manifest a great concern in the welfare of the British Navy; v it is true that he manifests greater/admiration for the local Harbour Naval Volunteers and their motor boats than the for-

midable battleships which go to make up tha moral influence that serves in turn to ensure the peace and goodwill of the sister nations. But why? Simply because the Colonial is not called upon to exhibit that interest and admiration. The Colonial cannot logically be expected to take an interest in, or manifest an admiration, in vord or deed, for something that he never sees or is never brought into personal contact with. To him the British Navy is a mighty spectre that history speaks of, but upon which,

a the absence of any personal con-

tact, he does not feel he is called upon to waste energy. That, then, is the position from the Colonial's point of view, a position that urgently requires remedying, and the Commonwealth Government, consciously or unconsciously, has hit upon the method most likely to evolve the remedy. The proposed Australian Navy is something that can appeal to the Australian heart, a "something" that, being Australian, every Australian feels that he is directly concerned with. It is a "something" that the growing youth, full of ambition and ignorance that is blies, may dream and speculate over; and was it not in the dreams of youth that the destiny of some of England's grandest sailors was directed? Then from the purely moral and sentimental standpoint, the establishment of an Australian Navy is

a grand step made in the right direction, the value of which Australia will learn ere she is many years oldor. From the real essential standpoint--the defence of Australia —the vote recently passed and indicating the purpose of the Government, is peculiarly gratifying. There can be little doubt, in the minds of many soberthinking people, that the day is

not far off when England will be engaged in war either with Germany or the Yellow Races. Germany is every year more and more feeling the inconvenience of a crowded population, and Colonies she must have, or lose her position as one of the leading nations of the world. The great Yellow Races, on the other hand, have awakened restlessly to a realisation of their possibilities, and the desire to exert a Yellow superiority over the "White Sinners," is one that can only be combated by blood and war. In either of these cvent3 Australia must De prepared, for she is a prize that Germany or the Yellow Races (the latter particularly) would spend their life's blood, in securing. That the present British Navy would be able to defend the Continent of Australia effectively in the event of war with the Yellow Races, is a belief that shrewd statesmen will hesitate to confirm. To materially increase the fighting power of the British Navy, is beyond the financial abilities of the British taxpayer. To ask the Colonials to pay a proper proportion of the present huge burden placed upon the shoulders of the British taxpayer, savours somewhat of the ludicrous; but to ask him to give that same quotation towards the maintenance of an

Australian Navy for the defence of himself and Australia, is quite another question. His sense of patriotism, and even vanity, would be touched by the latter request, and unquestionably he would loyally respond. From all points of view, Australia is to be congratulated upon her initiation of what may prove to be a great epoch in the life of the Colonies. Whether New Zealand will follow suit, is another question. But of this we can be certain—the New Zealand people will more willingly respond to an appeal for one million pounds annually towards the establishment and maintenance of a New Zealand Navy than to an appesd for a quarter of a million towards the maintenance of the British Navy. It is not a question of lack of patriotism for the Mother Country and Navy; it is rather one of "human nature."