DUTCH NAVAL EXPANSION

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 213, 8 September 1923, Page 11

DUTCH NAVAL EXPANSION

BASE IN PACIFIC. IMPORTANT PROPOSALS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON. August 2. The Netherlands Government is projecting a great naval base in the Dutch Kast Indies within a short distance of ■Singapore, backed up by a strong naval force of criiieere, destroyers, and submarines. The chief base will be at Tandjong Priok—so well known to our mercantile marine—in Batavia, with supplementary bases at Macassar, in the Celebes, and at Kiou and Seerabaya. Macassar, which has a very fine harbour, will be strongly fortified. The fleet to be maintained in Dutch Kast Indian waters in connection with this scheme is laid down at four cruisers of from 4000 to 8000 tons, twenty-four fast ocean-going destroyers, four gunboats of 16-knot speed, forty-two submarines, with the usual complement of depot chips, minelayers, and other subsidiary ships, together with a formidable naval" and land air force of over 100 aeroplanes. Of course, the greater part of the fleet is to-be built, and that will take a pretty penny, the whole expenditure, which is to' be covered in six years, amounting to about £6.000,000—a burden which Holland is not likely to shoulder without a strong protest when the functioning bill is presented in time to come into effect in the New ear. A glance at the map of Oceania will show the very important effect that such a scheme would have on the Singapore scheme if the Dutch Kast Indies were held by a more formidable naval Power than" Holland, and what fools the British were to give up -lava after they captured it in ISll, and held it till IHI6. The base at Riou lies directly southeast of Singapore, within easy striking distance at the Straits Settlements. Of course this base is a subsidiary one to the chief base at Batavia, but it will 'be sufliciently important to bo a jumping oft place "for the naval forces there, should such a venture J>e deemed necesuary. The point of the Dutch scheme is tlmt it cuts in two the line Ibetween the Straits Settlements and the nearest point on tho coast of Australia. Against a great naval power, fighting a light to win outright in the Pacific, Holland could not hold her Eastern possession without outside substantial aid. The lirst power to seize those islands and take possession of the bases which Holland is *o obligingly about to create, would obtain an immeasurable advantage over any opponent on tile waters. Not only are the Dutch Kast Indies invaluable from a purely strategical point, but their commercial value is immense. The ex-Kaiser long had his eye on his neighbour's vineyard in the Hast. Men's smart striped shirts, 5/6: -work shirts. 5/0; striped denims, 0/11; Palmar Xap trousers, 9/0: Kean'a Sale, Xo. 1, Queen Street.—(Ad.)