IMPERIAL DEFENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9571, 18 August 1909, Page 5

IMPERIAL DEFENCE.

MILITARY SCHEMES. IMPERIAL GOVERNMENT'S PROPOSALS. ADOPTED BY DEFENCE CONFERENCE. •Jnitefl Press Association -By Electric Telegraph Copyright. Received August 17, 8.50 a.m LONDON, August 16. The Imperial Government's proposals have baen accepted by the Defence Conference. They provide for interchange ability of forces in all parts of the Empire; that the organisation, training, equipment, arms, and manoeuvres in the oversea dominions shall be the same as those of the home army; and that there shall bean active interchange of officers. The Imperial General Staff will contribute to uniformity, as also will the training-colleges which it is proposed to establish in the colonies on the lines of the Camberley Staff College, r

LORD BERESFORD AND THE ADMIRALTY. Reecived August 17, 10.5 p.m. LONDON, August 17. Lord Beresford, in a letter to the newspapers, says that the report of the Sub-Committee of the Cabinet appointed by the Prime Minister, Mr Asquith—mainly as the result of representations by Admiral Lord Charles Beresford—on recent allegations made against the Admiralty in tha main has given great satisfaction to himself, and that same of the reforms that he regarded as essential are now in the Admiral ty'programme. He strangly denied that he was ever guilty of disloyalty to the Admiralty's instructions, or failed to recognise their paramount authority.

The report declared that during the time covered by Admiral Beresford's allegations—namely, April, 1907, to April, 1908 no danger to the country resulted from the Admiralty's arrangements for war, whether considered from the standpoint of oganisation, or of the distribution of the fleets, the number of ships, or the preparation of war plans. The Sub-Committee continues:—"We feel bound to add thatthe arrangements made were quite defensible in themselves, though ndt , ideally pefect; and that they were ir*j practice seriously hampered though the absence of cordial relations between the Board of Admiralty and the Commander-in-Chief of the Channel Fleet (then Admiral beresford.) The Admiralty do not appear to have, taken Admiral Beresford sufficiently into their confiderce regarding the reasons for the dispositions to which he took exception. Admiral Beresford, on the other hand, appears to have failed to appreciate or carry out the spirit of the Admiralty Board's instructions, and to recognise their paramount authority." The Sub- Committee infers the existence of differences of opinion among officers o± high rank on naval strategy and tactics, and looks forward with much confidence to the further development of a Naval War Staff, from which members of the Board of Admiralty, and Flag Officers and their staffs at sea,~may be expected to derive a CK-nmon benefit. The sub-committee consisted of Messrs Asquith and Haldane, Lords Morley and Crewe, and Sir Edward Grey.

Recei el August 17, 10.20 p.m. LONDON, August 17. The Ottawa correspondent of "The Times" says that official sources declare that there is no difference between the Admiralty and the daughter States regarding contributions to the Navy. There is an opinion that both Canada aid Australia will persist in their decision for the aliocatio.i of ships on Canada's Pacific coast, and will not be satisfied witfi the decision of the Defeoce Conference, which leaves the Pacific free to an enemy.