The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1909. THE DEFENCE OF NEW ZEALAND

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2458, 24 March 1909, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 1909. THE DEFENCE OF NEW ZEALAND

It’ie to be hoped that as Sir Joseph Ward has shown his ability to take a statesmanlike view of-*the position in regard to the British Navy, he will simultaneously have awakened to his responsibilities in providing New Zealand with a practical scheme of defence. At the present time the greatest service New Zealand can render to the Empire is to increase as speedily as possible the fighting strength of the British Navy, but as a general principle a still more effective method is to arrange as far as possible for our own defence. Yet in this connection the Premier has up to the present betrayed an entire inability or unwillingness to recognise the position. No one knows how soon the time may come when Britain will no longer remain in undisputed possession of the seas, yet we in New Zealand who are completely dependent for protection upon the Mother Country, have been calmly pursuing our ordinary avocations of money making, sports seeking, drinking and gambling, as though there were no such beings in the world as foreigners and no such thing as war. And the leader of this young nation, instead of rousing the people to their position has been lulling them into a false security and opposing any definite measures for defence. The volunteer system has proved itself entirely inadequate to give to New Zealand the protection which the. local resources of the Dominion can make possible. We want to have some assurance that should the British Navy be at any time defeated or so sorely ha massed that it has to he kept in Home waters, our people will still be able to make some sort of defence against any stray warship or cruiser that might happen along this way. That defence could not be made by the few thousand volunteers upon whom we are to-day solely dependent, but it could be made by the adult population of the Dominion, provided every person was well-armed and had previously undergone some little training in the first principles of warfare. Now is the time for the Defence League of New Zealand to get to work with its propoganda and, if full advantage is taken of the present opportunity, it is more than probable that the next session of Parliament will sanction a scheme of compulsory training whereby the- defences of the Dominion will be placed on a sound footing.

gard to naval expendittVib. The head of a Government sworn to peace and economy, has felt it necessary even in a time of depression to come forward with the most costly proposals yet submitted to Parliament and to warn the people of the danger of any curtailment of naval expenditure. But the progress of the debate has brought out additional fasts of such moment that the movement in regard to- naval expenditure has got out of hand so far as Mr Asquith is concerned. It seems evident that instead of apologising for the size of the naval estimates he will be compelled to substantially increase them or else face a dissolution. The main facts that ( came out in the Debate were: That futile efforts had been made to induce Germany to agree to a reduction of armaments; that Germany had published an official shipbuilding programme, and had secretly gone on with another of much greater dimensions, and that Germany has now the facilities for building warships as rapidly as has Great Britain. There is little doubt that those responsible for the German naval preparations have been viewing with a good deal. of satisfaction the anxiety which the revelation of the true position has caused in England. Then, whilst the debate is still proceeding, comes the rumor of a - suggested Dreadnought as a donation from Australia, and before the rumor has time to materialise into definite action comes, word that New Zealand has offered one of these huge battleships and, if necessary, is prepared to donate two. Action of this kind will strike very deeply into the stolid mind of the German, and it will probably cause him to view in an entirely different light the proposals for a mighty navy which was to sweep the Union Jack from the.seas. His rulers had commenced a naval programme which promised within a few years to provide a fleet unmistakably more powerful than that of her great rival. A naval victory by Germany would transfer to the victors the enormous maritime prestige of Great Britain. England would be humiliated and reduced to a second-class Power, whilst her dependencies would be left to shift for themselves, and German expansion all over the globe would go ahead by leaps and bounds. Then the cables flash the news . of New Zealand’s splendid offer and the imperial dream of the German is shattered as he is forced to realise that he has been pitting himself not merely against the grand little country which the baffled Napoleon contemptuously referred to as “a nation of shopkeepers” hut against the strongest and wealthiest Empire known to history—each portion of which, however remote, is prepared at a moment’s notice to resent, with the utmost power, any attack that threatens the heart of the Nation.

Another point of criticism is that made by Cardinal Moran, who considers that Australia should not present a Dreadnought because England is wealthy enough to build all the Dreadnoughts that are needed. The remark is true enough in a sense, hut until Cardinal Moran can succeed in instituting a system of political economy whereby the rich can be made to disgorge their riches for the benefit of the community the information is of little use. It is a fact-that the masses of England are. at the present time anything but weaithey, and certainly unable to bear without great hardships the additional taxation that must come with a more ambitious naval programme. It has also been suggested that an increase of Aus-

tralia’s naval subsidy would be better than a straight-out gift of a battleship. This again seems to miss the exigencies of the situation. Naval supremacy is at present measured in Dreadnoughts, and it is the predicted shortage of these gigantic instruments of war which is agitating the English world and is encouraging the extravagant hopes of the Germans at the present time. Nothing so absolutely practical as the gift of a Dreadnought could well he conceived, for it represents the power and the motives of the donors in a way that must appeal to the dullest imagination, and it is to be hoped that Australia, Canada arid South Africa will follow, the capital example set by this Dominion.