READY FOR WAR!

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10172, 23 February 1911, Page 4

READY FOR WAR!

Speaking,'at the opening of* the new building. of the. Adelaide Ciiamber of . Manufactures ■ '■. recently, 'in response to the toast of his health, his- Excellency th»' Governor (Admiral Sir Day Bosanquet) made an important pronouncement about Australian defence. He fel*: it was true that the British!-Niyy had protected Aus- , tradia; sinße- the days of the Battle of j Trafalgar: It was through the power of Great Britain's, fleet ' that ''tth'erie.v hadi been no possibility df, those. Powers which cast envious eyes at Aus.fralia?\r/a±ting even one man on these shores. Great as the Australian army was,, it could not. repel an invasion of this country until .lines of railway wese completed' tto the north,, the north-west,;and the northj east, until the- breaks of gauge Were abolished, and until facilities for the movement of troops from one 'part j of' the, great "'Continenttto;o o ; another were, provided. He" was sure the protection; of Australia was the British Navy.- No one wouki be more delighted than lie to see the day when the railways wpuld be completed, and an army of 100,000 men "that could move quickly about from one t p4rt ~tp, another could meet '-.the ■.- en-; "emy at any one spot, and thrust them into the. sea. He believed in their-army. It would be of far more ;use than' any army theyliad in.Eng- , land'. Although the army in England numbered two ■millions of the most efficient soldiers in the world, what could they do without food? In i : England' there was only three weeks' L supply of bread or a three months' supply of meat. Any nation that | coulft stop the supply of foodstuffs ■going in regularly wouldT&tarve the army and the populace into submission. There was much- talk of danger. from a weakened' nsfcvy, but no notice should be taken of the scaremongers, who talked' of England's unpreparedness for war: He was. in weekly communication with the British. Admiralty, and' he was assured 1 that there was nothing in the alarmist reports that were being spread. England was'fully prepared for any force that could be brought . against her, and that Avas sufficient : for the present. The men> avßlo- badkept the force adequate in the' past wouldidoubtless do something in the future, if occasion arose.