A.—s

474

station of the fleet which is imposed by the present agreement. Originally, under the Agreement of 1887, the Australian fleet was limited to Australian waters. When that agreement expired, another agreement was entered into by which a fleet or squadron of increased strength was provided, and its sphere of action enlarged to the China and Indian seas. As a consequence, it appeared to many in Australia that the local protection which was its primary condition was so far departed from that it had practically ceased to exist. Nor could this new development of policy be challenged because all expert opinion agrees that the proper place for a defensive force is where it can deliver the best blows at any offensive force directed against it. It was quite probable that this would not be immediately on the coast of Australia, but rather in the Indian Ocean, or to the eastward towards the China seas. It is as much in the interest of the Commonwealth as of the Navy that whatever power it can bring to bear should be available wherever the enemy is to be found in force, but this meant the withdrawal from our coast of ships to which we have been accustomed to look for localised protection, and also for the world-wide operations of the British Navy. Their withdrawal brought more home to the public particularly of our great States on the seaboard the nature of the risks to which they must be exposed in the absence of the squadron. Practically every capital, with perhaps the single exception of Perth, is upon the sea; Sydney, Adelaide, and 1 fobart, are all easily approachable from the sea In the case of Melbourne, Port Phillip heads, and the forts there could, if effective, keep an attacking force at a distance. Yet, supposing the heads to be passed, Melbourne, too, would lie directly open to any attacks. Brisbane runs a somewhat similar risk. The Committee of Imperial Defence, after giving this question full consideration, have decided that a regular attacking force is not to be anticipated in our Antipodean situation, under any circumstances that it is necessary to directly provide for it in advance. They look forward to the possibilities of a raid, consisting in all likelihood of some four fast half-armoured or partly armoured cruisers, carrying forces of from 500 to, at the outside, 1,000 men. Even an expedition of those small dimensions, calling for a very considerable provision in the way of fuel and other arrangements, would make only a transitory dash for our ports and shipping rather than a series of prolonged attacks. But, whatever the nature of the assault is to be, its possibility leaves the large population of our seaboard States with a sense of insecurity, emphasised by the probability of the withdrawal of the squadron some thousands of miles away to deal with the expected enemy there. Consequently, the demand for some harbour and coast defence has been pressed upon the minds of the people in general, and has been lately several times considered by Parliament. It is thought that while it may be the best possible naval strategy to withdraw the squadron to remote portions of the seas surrounding Australia, the contingency of our being raided, even by a few cruisers, and of our commerce being driven into the harbours or destroyed, or enclosed in the harbours, is not one that a community ought to contemplate unmoved. Hence our desire for the local protection to which you have already alluded. Our proposal to replace the existing agreement by the establishment of a force in Australian waters is not due to motives of economy. On the contrary, though it will involve a greater expenditure upon maritime defence than we have ever undertaken, I believe that those proposals will be willingly accepted by Parliament, Of course we shall require to proceed by degrees, but even then the expenditure proposed will exceed the payment now made to the Admiralty, plus the payments that have been made for several years past upon such naval defences as we have retained. At all events, the present temper of the electors encourages me to believe that in the course of a few years we shall see, in proportion to our population, a fairly effective harbour defence, which

Thirteenth Day. 8 May 1907.

Naval Defence. (Mr. Deakin.)