SINGAPORE DOCK.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18456, 10 August 1925, Page 14

SINGAPORE DOCK.

NEW TYPE OF NAVAL MAP. CASE AGAINST SYDNEY. (STtOM OCR OWK CORRESPONDENT •) LONDON, June 30. At' a meeting of the Colonial Institute. Dr. Vaughan Cornish, a wellknown geographical expert, lectured on the subject of the Singapore Base. A good deal of his lecture was taken up with an explanation of the right type :of map for naval study. The strategical considerations 'governing the decision to establish a base at Singapore, he maintained, call for a reorientation of the maps we are accustomed to use. The main object being usually to display the continents, maps of the world are' generally cut along the continuous meridians 20deg. W. and 160deg. E., which run down the Atlantic arid Pacifio Oceans, which is. the best practicable division . between the.- , lands, although it separates New Zealand from Australia. 'Another map used in studying sea routes is that which only cuts once across the east and! west -communications .of the world. The cut is usually along the meridian 180des;., which makes the meridian of Greenwich the centre of the map. This division is convenient for time-keeping, but topographically ■ the meridian 160, deg. ,W. is better for the cut, as it is a more nearly equal division of this ocean, and keeps most of the islands of the South Pacific together on the. Australian, side of the map, instead of representing a considerable proportion as if they were on the opposite side of the world.

Ideal Division Line. "The ideal line of division for tho map;," said. Dr. Cornish. 7f wcrald fee a meridian not crossed by the fleet of any naval power when cruising between its stations'. Previous to the-construction oE.the Panama Canal it would not. I think, haye been possible to find th(s line of division. Until the American navy was -provided with this short cut, the voyage from the naval shipbuilding yards on the Atlantic to the Pacifio coast and: Pearl Harbour in the Hawaiian Islands, took the American Fleet eastwards half-way across the Atlantic, for Brazil' extends, east of the meridian 35deg. W. , Now, 'however, the line of communication jCmerican fleet follows the meridian -Todeg. W. from Hampton roads at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay to Windward passage, between Haiti and Cuba, with the station of -Guantanomo on the latter. island, to Colon, the fortified entrance port of the Panama Canal:" Taking this .map of tho world centred , at 110 deg. E., and divided at 70 dog. j W-, we find that the meridian half-way between the centre and the right hand!' of.(the map, that of 160 deg. W., al-. though not -me<ntioned in the Washington Treaty, has in fact acquired a new political and stategic importance. "Under the Treaty the United States has agreed not to develop or fortify the Aleutian Islands or any of the Oceanic Islands of the Pacific, except the waiian group. The meridian 160 deg. W,., runs just west of Oahu. the Hawaiian island where Pearl Harbour, the naval base, and .Honolulu, the commercial port, are-situated; and the other principal islands of the group- lie to the east.

The lecturer divided the new map. of whioh Singapore is practically the centre, into four quadrants. 'Each of thgse quadrants has a special, significance to different navies, especially those of Great Britain, Japan, and America.

.White Australian Policy. Dr. Cornish went on to deal with the strategical importance of Singapore, whichbecomes jnuch plainer to the lay mind when studied on a ma» such as suggested. He pointed out, however, that the strategical importance of Singapore is not only naval, for it is a necessary aerodrome between India and Australia, and, therefore, an essen-. tial link in the aerial communications 1 between Australia and Grfeat Britain. Thus, even if in the course of the twentieth century the task of protecting maritime communications 'become - more aeTial and less naval, the strategical importance of Singapore will not udcessarilV diminish.

. The lecturer ipade .an interesting statement -regarding the "White Australia" policy. . "This," he said, "has been uncritically described as an effort to prevent-congested' populations in Asia from colonising e'mpty lands... In point of fact it does not do so • for the Asiatic coolie has empty land- at the doors of his . own country. The Asiatic lands, continental and insular, adjacent -to Japan, -China, and India, which are suitable in soil and climate for colonisation by Asiatics, exceed in area all the land of tropical Australia, California, ; Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, put together. , The real effect of the exclusion policy is to hinder the Asiatic from earning large wages and making high profits. If this results in his colonising his own Continent, the upshot will be beneficial to his descendants, for it is in Asia, not in Occidental countries, that'the Oriental can enjoy full national life and develop his own civilisation."

Sydney as a Base. Captain Altham, H.N.. remarked that the necessity for Singapore Docks had been brought home to England by the China troubles He referred to the suggestion that Sydney would be a better place for a dock. A baso such as Singapore or a repair base, he said, had to be maintained' and supplied by this country, and one must realise the immense difficulty of supplying a station so far off as Australia. Australia did not possess the resources necessary to maintain a dock. Moreover the labour conditions in Australia would .prevent a dock such as Singapore being built. It would cost thirty million pounds in Australia to build a dry dock alone. Captain Altham said that the floating dock destined for Malta should be sent on as a temporary expedient to Singa~ pore, and the China Squadron, . augmented 'by a battle-cruiser, while other vessels should follow when they became available.