by the advice of the British Minister of Defence Harold Macmillan, to refocus NZ defence on the Pacific and shorter lines of communication to South East Asia rather than Middle East. The British First Sea Lord and Admiralty minister stressed the availability of 'Royalist' and that an order of two or three anti-submarine frigates would probably proceed, the Type 12 frigate was untested and unproven, and the RN viewed it was desirable to wait for new types of frigates suitable for NZ conditions with more gunpower and anti-submarine capability. The cost of Royalists reconstruction reached £4.5 million. (the same as the cost of two new 2,500-ton frigates). A minority of RNZN opinion, including Captain Peter Phipps, saw it as a policy reversal stopping the RNZN maintaining six frigates, good training conditions and commonality with new RN frigates. However Royalist, with massive assistance from the RN and US Navy, was operational, post refit, for nine and half year. After Suez in 1956 the Royal Navy transferred the bulk of the fleet to the Indian and Pacific oceans from 1957 to 1967. As a result, Royalist could be deployed with the RN carrier fleet. The ship was handed over to the Royal New Zealand Navy on 9 July 1956. When Captain Phipps went to take command of Royalist in 1955, New Zealand diplomat Frank Corner showed his own view, when he noted that Phipps agreed that the ship was a white elephant, unsuitable for use in the Pacific. However The RNZN had operated the Bellona and Black Prince (the same class as Royalist) since 1946 as part of NZ Defence contribution in 1946–54. Phipps claimed the cruiser's range was limited and it could not even reach Panama without refuelling. However Phipps also stated when the cruiser reached Auckland, that it was updated, as a most modern warship, with the capability to take "three targets simultaneously, and shoot down air targets with reasonable frequency often on the first salvo" The Type 12 (Whitby-class) anti-submarine frigates proved in use to have only 2/3rds of the projected endurance of 4000 nm at 15 knots. By comparison the longer-range diesel version Type 41 Leopard-class anti-aircraft frigates, with two twin 4.5 turrets, would have countered the problem of unreliability with single turret of the Otago-class. The Type 41 (and Type 61 Salisbury-class aircraft direction frigate) original radar and fire control fit was similar to Royalist and the