AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3069, 14 December 1908, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE.

ANNUAL RIPOKT OF NAVAL DIRECTOR. MELBOURNE, Decembre 12. The annual report of the Director of Naval Forcas was hid on the table of the Senate to-day by the Minister for Defence (Senator Peare). The report set out that until an understanding has been reached with the Imperial authorities as to a clearly-defined defence sphere, preparation for war is chance work, and a complete replacement and reorganisation must be effected before the Commonwealth naval force can take a dua share in defence.

As at present constituted the forces are rapidly nearin? the vanishing point in their war value. Designs for the proposed Australian war vessels have been submited by Professor J. H. Bjles, Naval Architect to the Indian and other Governments and a member of the Admiralty Committee on Designs. The vessels, he recommneds, should be specially constructed to meet Australian weather conditions. An extensive radius of action is necessary to suit great distances. The proposed vessels are said to mark an advance in radius of action and in number of torpedo tubes and gun armament. They are two or three knots less in speed than the latest ocean destroyers, but excel the original river class of warship. The adoption of the lower speed will allow increased strength of hull and armament. The only danger to which Australia is exposed, the report adds, is from unarmed raiding cruiser* up to four in number, with a landing strength of a thousand men.