IMPERIAL DEFENCE

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10705, 28 August 1912, Page 5

IMPERIAL DEFENCE

CABLE NEW?

(Uni**d Prea* Astociatton — By JSkfltrie TeU»rnph — Copyright.)

AUSTRALASIA'S EXAMPLE

AN IMPORTANT QUESTION

/Received Last Night, 10.45 o'clock.) LONDON, August 27.

■ The Times eulogises the lead given by Australia and New Zealand to the other Dominions in the practical measures of defence. The paper adds tliat Australia has now embarked on important naval development for reasons different from Canada's . Canada : is maily desiring general security adaiis mainly desiring general security is absolutely dependent on that the Empire as a whole is naturally inclined'to the close co-operation of the British fleet in European seas. Australia on the other hand looks first to the Pacific, and the balance of power there is her first consideration, which 5s tho reverse to Canada's which . asks security" against direct attack. J The Times then utters a warning | in connection with tho argument as I to whether that the Australian fleet j will remain Imperial, because it will ■ become so immediately in the event 'of war. The writer urges, in the first place, that the movements of the Australian fleet may in themselves produce war, and if the Empire as a whole has no voice in the movements of the fleet it cannot accept\ responsibility for the consequences its movements may entail, and in the •second place, if Australia conducts her own policy in .the Pacific, a policy over which the other 'lmperial statesmen have no control she is committing the other partners of the Empire to liabilities they cannot limit or foretell. These conclusions, it is admitted, have no immediate bearing on the Imperial relation inasmuch as they are based on conditions which do not exist at present, but it is essential to look forward, as the Hon R. L. Borden proposes, and provide for the gradual accommodation of Imperial.relations to Imperial needs. Tho problem is not a simple one, and progress j can only be tentative. j