BASE AT SINGAPORE.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 167, 16 July 1924, Page 5

BASE AT SINGAPORE.

THE SCHEME ABANDONED. DISCUSSION BY LORDS. V . , LONDON, July 15. In the House of Lords, Viscount Chelmsford, First Lord of the Admiralty, in reply to a question, said that the Government was not standing still in reference to the Singapore base. It was still exploring the situation, and had been doing so since Mr. Mac Donald's statement on the' subject on March 18. The United States, Japan, France, and Italy must be considered if the Washington pact were to be added to. The Earl of Balfour: That is a most extraordinary attitude. The Washington pact does not affect the Singapore base. Viscount Haldano (Lord High Chancellor) admitted that Singapore was wholly outside the boundary fixed under the Washington Treaty. He also admitted the displeasure of Australia and New Zealand at the Government's decision to abandon the base scheme. The question was the effect on the British Government's general foreign policy of the establishment of a new base, which might be an instrument of offence as well as of defence —something dominating the whole Pacific. The Government was endeavouring to keep "the Navy efficient continued Lord Haldane, but Singapore went beyond that. It added a new weapon, which it was not good for the Navy to possess. The establishment of a new base was irreconcilable with the Government's foreign policy, which aimed at making the world better. That policy might fail, but it was the policy on which the Government meant to stand or fall. The Marquis of Linlithgow said the country had not been treated fairly in reference to Singapore. He expressed the opinion that the abandonment of the base scheme was more a gesture to the Labour extremists than to any foreign Power.— (A. and N.Z. Cable.) "