LAND AND SEA DEFENCE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 26 April 1913, Page 7

LAND AND SEA DEFENCE.

STATEMENT BY MR ALLEN*. At a meeting of the Liberal Colonial Club in London, the Hon James Allen said that in New Zealand defence had been treated by all parties as a non-party question, and he hoped that the members of the British Parliament ond the British public would also treat, defence as a non-politvn! matter. —(Hear, h?ar.) In this connection there were those who held that a.s long a<s the a'first line »f defence," as the .navy was willed, wa.s as strong as was required, the-v was no need to fear aggression. But he doubted if there hnd been a si'ig!.' l instance in history of an international struggle in which England was concerned which had been settled by the navy alone. Tn all cases it had been necessary to enlist the support of the land Forces to. secure eventual victory. The fact was recognised in. New Zealand that the land and ;-:« ; a forces were the necessary complement of each other. In full regard of that fact, they had adopted a system of compulsory national military service in New Zealand, and they were ready to transfer a .portion of that military foroe to any part of the Empire in which their services were required. But the transport- of that "force was not possible without naval protection, and thus it was again brought home to'them that the lard and forces were inter-dependent. But while both adequate sea and land forces were necessary, the more difficult problem related to naval defowc New Zealand had. faced the problem by making a direct contribution to teh navy, and in doing so she had, he Relieved, acted wisely. Canada wou'd probably do the same. But this was onlv the beginning of the task of ' facing the naval problem of the Empire. It was not a permanent policy.. What they had to do in these- outer portions of the Empire was- to determine that poller. For his part, hedid not think that we could sr«t from the oversea Dominions the full measure of the required sacrifice in securing the naval defence of the whole Empire, except by recognising the national sentiment of the Dominions, and by adopting the principle of patriotic interest by which the Dominions were animated. Tims it was that the Australian Commonwealth had adopted the policy of building a fl<v called their own fleet, but not fctheir purposes stone. e had been in close contact within the last few years with the Australian authorities, and he was 'prepanxl to say that Australia was not building a navy for selfish reasons. Australia had simply been -using the sentiment of sacrifice for the purpose of ultimately building up an Imperial navy. He thought that was the policy wh-cb would have to be adopted ultimately by all the Dominions. He did not care whether the Dominions began by building ships or burying stops, or contributing.in any other form to the naval defence of the Empire, so long as they all acted in unison with some intelligent plan which would permit of effective co-operation in# Imperial interests, and consistent with the whole of these various naval units t: getheif again . , Of course, the formulation of such a large policy, was one of grave difficulty, but he did not agree that it was an insoluble difficulty. It was no use building these separate units except with a definite mutual understanding of what these units were for, and that ultimate purpose must be not only the defenec 'of the seoarate parts of the Empire, but of the whole of the Empire.— (Cheers.)