THE NAVY LEAGUE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3424, 16 January 1912, Page 2

THE NAVY LEAGUE.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS' AND FIGURES'. Mr J. R. Kirk, a prominent member of the local branch of. the Navy League, is in receipt of a letter from Mr C. W. Palmer, secretary of the Wellington branch of the League, which contain* some interesting details of a .'lecture given on 25th November last by Lieut. H. T. C. Knox, at York Cottage, Sandringham on “The Royal Navy and the Mercantile Marine,” to Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales K.G., Princess May. Prince George and Prince John/ The Prince 0 f Wales worked the lantern himself. Mr Knox spent the week-end (three days) at York Cottage as the guest of the Prince. The lecture was divided into five parts: (a) Types of British’ warships; <b) Life aboard a man-of-war ; (c) the Mercantile Marine; (d) German ports; ,(e) foreign warships. A slide was shown of the Navy League Wail Map, which Mr- Knox explained was hanging in most of the schools in New Zealand, “the first country to offer a Dreadnought to the Empire.” Amongst other slides shown w- ie H.M.S. “Hindustan,” “Orion” (the first of the super-Dreadnougnts) “Drake” (the new flagship for Australasia) the “Olympic,” “Lusitania,” Die Navy League brigs at Windsor and Reading, the “Egeria” recently purchased by the Vancouver branch of +be Navy League, the “Amokura” which Mr Knox said was training New Zealand boys for the sea. A slide was shown giving the statement of Sir Ihlward Gibbes of the N.Z. Education Department: “But for the extensive work of the Navy League in New Zealand, the offer of a Dreadnought would M>t have been practicable.” The lecture concluded with slides of H.M. the King as a Lieutenant- on board his first command surrounded by his officers and men, and pictures of the “Opliir” steaming out of Portsmouth in 1901, the “Medina” leaving Portsmouth on November 11th and pictures of the King and Queen. Mr Knox thanked Their Royal Highnesses for the honor they had conferred upon him and (through him) upon every member of the Navy League throughout the Empire. He referred to King George’s message to the fleet on 10th May, 1910: “That, you will ever continue to be, as in the past, the foremost defender M your country’s honor, 1 know full well; and your fortunes will always be followed' by me with deep feelings of pride and affectionate interest.” The letter also encloses some very significant figures concerning the growth of the membership of the Wellington branch of the Navy League. Under the auspices of that branch some 11,000 juvenile members of the League have been able to visit warships at various ports in the Dominion, and numerous and patriotic entertainments and lantern slide exhibitions have been held by the League at Wellington and subbranches, the audiences aggregating over 35,000From the general tenor of the letter it would appear that the League is | flourishing, and is disseminating widely | much information which can have no i other effect than to impress on the minds of people of ail ages the great importance of British supremacy on the seas.