THE NAVY AS INSURANCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 3194, 20 May 1909, Page 4

THE NAVY AS INSURANCE.

The London "Daily Telegraph" shows roughly how the cost of the Navy compares with that of fire in suranc?. By a rough calculation the capital value of the United Kingdom is" put at £40,000,000.000—3 very csnservative estimate. Assuming the expenditure on the Navy to be £40,Ooo,oQoX.year—a liberal estimate—the insurance works out at 2s for every £IOO, which is the usual rate for insuring the contents of private houses. No account is taken in this estimate of the immense value of the outlying portions of the Empire, which are protected by the Navy. It is superfluous to point out that if an overwhelmingly strong Navy prevents war, the more financial gainirom incurring the extra cost would be paid for many times over. What may be rather insisted upor, is that the existence of a Navy of unquestionable power vastly pays more than its cost, because of the fact that the faintest sense of insecurity at sea would depreciate capital values to a vastly larger extent than 2s in each £IOO in the course of every year during which the feeling of insecurity continued. When we pay for fire insurance we obtain a guarantee that loss up to a certain sum will be made good, but such insurance does nothing to prevent fire, whereas the British Navy, if kept at its proper strength and efficiency, prevents the catastrophe insured against. The Navy, therefore, gives a much better insurance than is given by a fire insurance company, at the same rate, while the materialanrl imponderable interests involved are infinitely mor.e valuable.