NATIONAL DEFENCE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2357, 25 November 1908, Page 2

NATIONAL DEFENCE.

A STRONG NAVY REQUIRED. SPEECH BY ADMIRAL POORE. (Speaking at a welcome tendered to him in Wellington on Friday evening last by the Navy League, Admiral oir Richard Poore made some interesting remarks. He said : —The number of people present made him realise iu or o than ever what the command of the sea meant, and-that it is understood hero more than it is generally understood. When ho spoke of tlie command of the sea, ho spoke in no belligerent spirit, for they as a race were not pursuing an aggressive policy. Say, rather, that a strong navy” took in its wake peace, ancl not war. (Applause.) If they took a map o’f tlio world, and traced tho Empire wide filing on it, and then traced out the highways oP the connecting sea, they would ask tliemsCives liow could it be defended ? They would realise fully that the navy must be a strong one to allow our sbiiis to pass alopg with a reasonable degree of safety, winch only involved tho policy to hold what they had. (Applause.) He understood that the people of New Zealand recognised that fact in their wonderfully generous addition to the subsidy without the addition of a clause involving a condition, so enabling it to be utilised for the good of the whole Empire. He did not mean by that that they were going to run away from New Zealand —he would take good care that was not carried out. Seeing that wo had given freely, and had been so hospitably received, lie hop-4, that liis ships would be very ' een in these waters. (Ap’T’licre was a small matter . recently to the effect that fleet should visit these This, he considered, would greatest mistake they could / A ! as the displacement of such a could only depend on the 4d's politics, "and on them depondtlie effectiveness of having a • .-quadron here and a squadron there, He illustrated what he meant by li- ■ kening tlie units of the navy to the bundle of sticks, one of which could be snapped by the fingers, but together were unbreakable. In the Old Country the bundles of sticks were held together by a hazel band, which stood for Imperial unity, and as long as they had Imperial unity the nation would stand. (Applause.) Napoleon had once called them a nation of shopkeepers, and lie. did not know but what there was not something in it, for it was by commerce that tho Empire had been made. Napoleon, great man as he was, had forgotten one thing, and that led to Ids downfall in the end —tlio command of the sea. It meant everything, and all through those tiresome wars England had- held it safe. (Applause.) In speaking of defence, the Admiral said that it cost £40,000,000 -aNyear, of which £428,000 was contributed by the colonics anti other parts of tlio Empire. It was just a question whether tlio Old Country could bear the burden much longer. Tho position reminded him of a little story be had heard of a French menagerie. A big Least was imprisoned in a cage on which was written the warning to the public, “He only defends himself.” He wished to again thank the people of New Zealand for tho reception that had been accorded him, as lie took it not so much to himself personally as an honor to the service to which ho belonged. (Prolonged applause.)