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- It is fair, and the Minister said the same thing in his answer. We read a year or so ago about something that happened over Sydney. I do not know why these things happen, but they are ludicrous. An Auster aircraft standing on Bankstown aerodrome got out of control and took off. There was nobody in it, but it started itself and took to the air. Do honorable members know where the plane which was sent to the rescue came from? It came from Richmond, 25 miles away. No aircraft was on the spot to be sent to the rescue. The Auster was the target for the day and it whizzed about over Sydney with the other plane vainly pursuing it, until the run-away plane became tired of the fun and subsided in some saltbush beside the Narrabeen Lakes. That is the sort of thing that we have to look at and be concerned about. Then we have to consider what the honorable member for Fremantle (Mr. Beazley) said about the Royal Australian Navy. That is rather important. The honorable member said that the Navy's ships had been built to their present designs because that is the way Britain builds warships. Is not that the way the mind of the Prime Minister (Mr. Menzies) goes? Does he not say, " If it is good enough for Britain, it is good enough for us "? As a result, there is no building for tropical service. That is not considered. Furthermore, Australians, as sailors, are quite different from the British. Australians are not used to campaigns in the frozen wastes, although they have served there also on occasions. The honorable member for Fremantle has made a valid point there. Surely some one should have thought of this. Anybody who examines the Navy will find that we have twelve ships of various kinds, including sloops and supply ships. However, we have one Chief of Naval Staff, seven rear admirals, four commodores second class, 56 captains, 152 commanders, 976 lieutenant-commanders, lieutenants and sub-lieutenants, and 200 snotties, or midshipmen and cadet midshipmen. Surely one of those people might have thought or suggested that this business of constructing ships in the same old way as they are constructed in Britain was out of date. The Royal Australian Navy is like Kipling's old flotilla in his poem, "The Road to Mandalay ", which lay off Rangoon. It is a collection of little herring-gutted ships with no accommodation for the ordinary sailors and with horrible outmoded and stupid class distinction still prevailing - a wardroom for the officers and anywhere you can get for the troops - with the precious cubic air content sharply contrasted between officers and men, and heavily in favour of the " brass ". The consideration of these matters while the Defence estimates are under consideration is valid, as has been indicated by the honorable member for Fremantle. Government supporters say that the Opposition is always knocking something. Ought not we to say something about the things that happen? Have we been given any explanation about the recent battle in Jervis Bay. I see from my notes that the destroyers " Anzac " and " Tobruk " engaged in mortal combat there. " Tobruk " was hit by a practice projectile from its sister ship, " Anzac ", and had to be put in dry dock. A few days after it was put in dry dock, we were told that it would be put into the mothball fleet. It is to go to Athol Bight, in Sydney Harbour, and take its place among the thin line of ships sleeping away their time until they go to the breaking-up yards. So far as I know, no very serious inquiries have been made about that, but that sort of thing costs the people money, and we want to know why it happens. We do know, at least, that a valiant message came from the commander of " Tobruk ", who said, " Our men behaved splendidly ". lt was only practice. There was no warhead on the projectile, but it made a damned big hole in the ship, although as one of its able seamen - an ordinary A.B. who hails from my electorate - said1, " Beyond that there was nothin' much ". That is the way with the Army. There is nothing much in it. There has never been much in the Navy either. That is why we bring up these points about defence expenditure, which so far has totalled £1,950,000,000 under this Government's administration.