THE NAVY DEBATE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10589, 22 March 1912, Page 5

THE NAVY DEBATE

CABLE NEWS?

(United Frm Anociationr-By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.)

FURTHER DISCUSSION

DEFENCE OF DOMINIONS.

(Received Last Night, 10.40 o'clock

LONDON, March 21

In the Navy debate, the accusation of needless delay in the completion of Australian and New Zealand ships has been proved to be baseless. The delay is clue to an endeavour to secure the best armour.

'Hie Right Hon. Winston Churchill', J in alluding to Imperial defence, said it 1 wias not for the Admiralty to initiate J proposals, to the Dominions, but it ! would cordially grant the expert as--1 sistance which was sought, and frankly inform them of all the facts connected with the naval policy. Referring to the question of associating the Dominion Ministers with Imperial defence, Mr Churchill declared that consultation on the subject would soon make it less encum--1 bored with difficulties. The Defence I Committee offered the most flexible I means oF establishing the real intimacy which ought to exist between the responsible leaders of the great Dominions and-those concerned with the defence of the Empire in England. Mr Churchill, replying to a suggestion of the hope to reduce the Navy, pointed out that the late Sir Henry Camphcll-Bannerman's prolonged restraint in Navy building had not produced a slackening, but a doubling in German construction. Negotiations had been in progress for sometime for the exchange of naval information? and England was always ready to state what ships were in building, and when they would be completed, providing Germany did likewise.