FEDERAL DEFENCE
NOT YET SUFFICIENTLY STRONG. RELATION TO SINGAPORE BASE. ENGLISH WRITER’S VIEWS. (United Press Association —Copyrignt.) LONDON, November 1. Mr Hector By water, writing in "The Daily Telegraph,” says it has long been evident that Australia will ultimately be compelled to build at least one battleship. Although the Hobart and Perth are augmenting the navy and large sums have been earmarked for the Air Force and coastal defence, the Commonwealth is not yet in a position to repel attack. The completion of the base at Singapore will add to the security of Australia and the territories in the Pacific, but it is primarily designed as a battleship base. At present no battleships are available for service there. It is also unlikely that any building will be spared for the Pacific. If it is decided to form a. battleship squadron for Singapore it will probably comprise the old, but modernised, Queen Elizabeth class. Such a squadron would be greatly strengthened by a new Australian battleship of 40,000 tons mounting 16-inch guns.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AG19381103.2.41
Bibliographic details
Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 20, 3 November 1938, Page 5
Word Count
171FEDERAL DEFENCE Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 20, 3 November 1938, Page 5
Using This Item
Ashburton Guardian Ltd is the copyright owner for the Ashburton Guardian. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Ashburton Guardian Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.