THE BRITISH NAVY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9673, 22 December 1909, Page 4

THE BRITISH NAVY.

The Liberal Party at Home are, apparently, in some straits to convince the liritisb public that it can sleep soundly at night without fear of invasion or attack. The First Lord of the Admiralty has found it necessary to administer to the electors another dose of its verbal soothing syrup, fortified by a recital of what the Government are doing in the way of shipbuilding. The list was no doubt sufficiently impressive to allay the anxiety of anyone who was satisfied with half the story—the other half would set forth what Germany has done and is still doing, and on that point Mr JMcKeima seems to have 1 been discreetly silent. But he was surely straining tlie credulity of his hearers a little too much when he claimed for his Government the credit for the Dreadnoughts given to the Empire by New Zealand and Australia. "He mentioned that as only one of the great efforts at Empire consoldation undertaken by the pre-

sent Government, and it would be a lasting memorial to the fame of the Liberal Government." This is unadulterated impudence, If Mr McKenna had done his duty to the nation and the Empire there would have been no possible reason or excuse for New Zealand and Australia to offer two millions each for the strengthening of the Navy.