Singapore As Key To Western Pacific

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 13243, 20 January 1941, Page 4

Singapore As Key To Western Pacific

By E. C. S. MARSHALL Foreign Editor of “The Sun.” Singapore. Dec. IT. Viewing Singapore and its surroundings form the air. e'ven the layman ’ can appreciate why the great naval base was built there. This place was “born with” strategic advantages, which have only been cleverly exploited. One of the finest natural harbours in the East here awaited naval development. Singapore was so rich already in well sheltered commercial anchorage that the harbour in question was a ‘“spare.” Lying between Singapore Island and the mainland of the Malayan peninsula, it offered scope for a great defensive work without damage to existing interests. I saw the picture to-day from a bombing-plane flown by a couple of Australians. We are flying roughly north-east, away from Singapore city. Below us is the green part of Singapore Island its open spaces and rubber plantations. Across our front lies a silver ribbon, -which is Johore Strait. Be yond, on the Malayan mainland, is Johore. the State ruled by a sultan who claims descent from Alexander the Great. His attractive little red capital city nestles by the side of the- , strait, and is linked to Singapore Island hy a causeway. Johore Strait is the site of Admiralty Harbour. There is more than enough deep-water anchorage here to accommodate the whole British Fleet. The harbour stretches eastward from the causeway, and includes the mouth of the Johore- River Two islands guard the entrance — sentinels put there by nature, so to speak, for British convenience and safety. , v . The base itself, lying on Admiralty Harbour, several miles up the straits at Seletar, covers four square miles. It is practically inaccessible to any thing but an air armada. From the plane you note the masts of its radio station. Dwarfed by being viewed from above, the jib of a massive crane thrusts up: it can lift a complete gun or boiler out of a warship. And over there are the ugly walls of the great floating dock. It was towed here in sections from Britain, a journey of 8000 miles. It has its own workshops and generating station, and is a self-contained unit. The King George VI. graving dock, opened in 19 38, is another hospital for naval titans. The Oil Tanks •I had heard a good deal, before coming here, about the oil tanks at Singapore. People had told me they looked like easy targets. And I saw. in fact, three western islands, thickly crowned with whitish tanks, and answering that description. A strange touch in a Conradesque seascape, they serve most of the Orient as a distributing centre for oil from the Dutch East Indies and Sarawak. The mistake some critics make is in supposing that here —“all waiting to be blown up”—are the oil reserves on which Singapore base would depend to fuel fleet or air arm in the ebent of trouble. The- oil reserves for military and naval purposes aie by no means so conspicuously placed, and are understood to be pretty widely scattered. Singapore Base- is believed to have enough fuel on hand at the present moment to supply the British Fleet for more than six months. We fly a little way out to sea, and we have to be careful not to cross Dutch islands. If you’ve never examined a large-scale chart of the surroundings of Singapore yon may think of Sumatra as the nearest Netherlands possession; but in actuality you find little patches of Dutch soil right up to Singapore’s front door. The British fliers avoid them, because the Dutch, although the> aie our very good friends, are sensitive about trespass. Our bomber to watch its course, too, for quite- other than international reasons. It was comnelled to keep at a respectful distance from the “prohibited areas” on Singapore Island. Even the approach of a British plane might draw anti-aircraft fire from these places. Two Ports The commercial port of Singapore as I looked down an it, was swarming with every kind of craft —big passenger and cargo steamers; busy little coasters by the dozen for dodging round among the adjacent Dutch islands; Chinese junks; native sixoared fishing boats in which the rowers stand face ,'the. bow._ It was eerie to stare at the jewelled waters and refl.ecFh.ow much sudden death they concealed. There are contact minefields for the defence of the entrances to the straits and harbours, and these make it necessary for any ship aporoachtng to follow closely-defined channels which are swept every day. Besides mines other secret devices are used to keep the gates of Singapore. Giant guns are part of the general defences,, and exactly where some have been placed is one of the best-kept defence secrets here. Th base buildings we saw only at a distance. An officer informed me that they were all constructed for maximum safety against attack from the air. If incendiary bombs fell on the roofs, they would never pierce to the workshops. If high-explosive bombs fell in the base, damage from flying splinters and blast would be negligible, while the most vital points have been made proof even .against direct hits. The first defence of the base, of ■ course, consists in keeping an enemy at arm’s length, and the authorities are confident that to get within range for bombing will not be easy. Even in the outlying parts of the base, intense air-raid precautions are taken, however, and there is a firefighting service, equipped with trailer purnn. that could deal at one time with scores of widely scattered

fires. The water mains go tlirougn the base with booster pumps at valiens points to increase the pressure if necessary. The base to-day possesses _ every mortal thing needed to “service ’ a great naval force. It is claimed that no matter how large the warship requiring revictualling, refuelling, munitioning. repairing, rearming, it would be just as much at home at Singapore as, say, at Devonport or Portsmouth. In so cosmopolitan a place, Europeans necessarily form only a fraction of the staff in the great base workshops. The whole Singapore population comprises 88 7 8 Europeans and 74 6 3 Eurasians, as against 45 9.305 Chinese, 53,201 Malays, and 45,50 6 Indians. So while many European engineers and overseers are engaged in the shops, the great majority of the workers are Chinese, Indian and Malay. Apart from its function as a naval base and its tremendous strength as a military fortress, Singapore has also become a first-class air-base — a development which has been duly noted abroad, and should not be un-der-estimated by Britons. The base represents a victory in the war of man against disease. Eighteen years ago, Seletar was a vast expanse of mangrove swamp with occasional patches of coconut or rubber plantations. Admiralty engineers now have their homes in spots where formerly no European would have dreamed of living—so rife was malaria. The pilot of the plane in w’hich I flew was an Australian wing-com-mander. He was a cheery chap, and so was the flight-lieutenant who accompanied him. Perhaps because it amused them, or possibly because, it was “regulations,” they went up in parachute harness. They explained very clearly how the thing worked. “Just drop clear, then give that a tug.” -They added that as we were going to fly low, the 'chutes -would be of no use anyhow. The guest who makes a flight in a military plane signs an undertak ing that, in the event of accident, there will be no claim against the authorities.. This scrap of paper the boys know affectionately as “the blood chit.” At the R.A.A.F. dromes, I found stalwart sikhs on guard at every hangar and keypoint. These fellows with the jet-black beards are born 'watchdogs. They seem to look forward greedily to the day when someone unauthorised will try to get past them. Carelessness in driving a car through an aerodrome gate has been known to attract a bayonet which went right through the radiator.