SERVICE OF ROYAL NAVY

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21364, 7 March 1941, Page 4

SERVICE OF ROYAL NAVY

No head of a service ever went to his country with a greater assurance of enthusiastic support than Mr A. V. Alexander has a right to claim for the naval estimates which he has placed before the House of Commons. The British Navy lives under a halo of proud traditions extending back into the dim past, but there is no finer chapter in its history than that which has been written in the past two years. Britons will accept the estimates with pride and gratitude because they know that the Navy has saved the Empire. Mr Alexander dealt specially with that period of grave danger immediately after the collapse of France, when the Allies were bereft of the support of the second greatest navy in Europe and in addition had added to its enemies the fighting strength of Italy. History will record in true perspective the gigantic task faced by the British Navy in closing those gaping rents in the ranks of Allied sea power and in recasting the whole strategic scheme in all the seven seas. The Empire will then fully appreciate what it owes to the Navy. It would have been thought that a purely defensive role would fully have occupied the naval forces, but that has not been so. In many quarters the warships have taken the offensive, alone or in combination with the air and land forces, and have scored many notable triumphs. Were its works confined to purely offensive action the Navy would have taken a far more prominent place in the public eye. But it must be remembered that day and night it undertakes the Herculean task of protecting merchant ships threading the seas in every part of the world, conveying vital supplies to the Empire and its allies. The enemy’s opportunities for attacks on the Merchant Marine have been multiplied many times by cpmparison with the last war. Not only has the enemy many more and better placed ports from which to launch submarine, attacks, but aerial bombing is a new and serious factor in modern warfare which has greatly increased the responsibilities of the Navy. In every branch of its service the Royal Navy has performed magnificently, and it will be a grateful Britain that will grant the Admiralty the funds it needs to continue and increase its campaign against a dangerous foe.