COLONIAL DEFENCES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXIV, Issue 9662, 28 October 1882, Page 3

COLONIAL DEFENCES.

*-, (Melbourne Argus.) . An item in our telegraphio news from Great Britain challenges the public attention. "We are told that, six cruisers are being fitted out at Chatham for the Australian station, and it will be remembered that/earlier in the week the announcement was made that six merchant cruisers had been allotted to the Hong Song. and six to the Bombay stations. The intelligence is well oalculated to create we will not say uneasiness, but assuredly a desire to learn more. It is now well understood that the nations of the world have by common consent agreed that, in the event of a war with Great Britain, their most hopeful plan of action would be to strike at her commerce on the high seas. The American navy, the Russian navy, and the French navy, are to a greater or lesser extent now organised upon this basis. The latest French writer, Admiral Aube, declares indeed that " the effective strength of a navy lies not in its ironclads, but in its torpedoes and its cruisers." The Eussian ■ Government gave us a fair warning on the subject in 1878-9, when with great ostentation a " patriotic fund " was established, and American ships were .openly purchased, and a parade was made about sending out the crews. Eussia is not accustomed to act with this publicity, and her procedure was rightly taken as an indication of what would be the consequence if Great Britain interfered too far between herself , and the Turk. To this day, indeed, the Kussian Press is apt to assert that the fear, of having a a : dozen Alabamas launched against British commence terrified the English Government into_ comparative inaction. But that, may pass. Gasconade is not confined to any particular soil. What is certain is that the Eussian demonstration led to the. adoption of '.a speoifio policy at the Admiralty. , Certain advantages were offered to shipowners who would build their vessels in compliance with conditions of .strength arid subdivision, which would' render them serviceable as cruisers in time of war. Thus the Servia, the latest addition- to the- Cunard fleet,' was. so built. Sheis a magnificent boat of 7200 tons, with a; speed of seventeen and a-half knots per hour, and : as a 1 oruiser has probably no equal afloat. And if was stated at the time of the trial of the Servia that " the Admiralty has at present a list of upwards of 200 ships, all of which have complied . with the conditions of the department so far as construction is concerned." . These ships could not fight ironclads 'and batteries any more than could the Eussian fleet which recently visited us. But it is held that they would be a match for the " free-lances " of the foe, and that the would-be depredators would thus be themselves chased, and captured. In guns, in speed, in strength, the British cruisers would be at least" equal to the Alabamas of the enemy, and the rest would depend upon seamanship. ' „