BRITISH NAVAL SECRETS

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21124, 27 March 1934, Page 9

BRITISH NAVAL SECRETS

Publication in Germany SINGAPORE DEFENCE DETAILS (UNITED PRESS ASSOCIATION—RY ELECTRIC 1 TELEGRAPH—COPYRIGHT.) (Received March 26, 11.55 p.m.) LONDON, March 26. Supplementing his earlier disclosures that British naval secrets had been published in the official German service organ, the naval correspondent of the "Daily Telegraph" states that the official journal also reveals that three 18-inch guns, the heaviest in existence, are now mounted in the batteries of Changi, guarding the naval base at Singapore. They were shipped there in 1928. Each is 59 feet long, weighs 150 tons, and fires a projectile weighing 33001b. They were originally intended for use on the cruiser Furious, but at the end of the war were mounted in monitors in order to shell the German defences on the Belgian coast. The German publication adds other details of the Singapore defences. The hilly region of Changi, admirably adapted for battery sites, is, it says, the headquarters of the entire defensive system of the northeastern seaboard near Singapore?. Heavy artillery, mainly guns on railway mountings, is in position, and it has been decided to complete the batteries by September at the latest.

The "Daily Telegraph" says that the accuracy of the German" statements cannot be determined. IA message published on Saturday quoted the statement of the same correspondent that a description of a new anti-aircraft lnnc'iine-gun, a jralouslyguanted British secret, had been published in the German journal. I

RUMOURS DENIED JAPANESE ACTIVITIES NEAR SINGAPORE (Received March 26, 11.55 p.m.) TOKYO, March 26. The spokesman for the Foreign Ofliee said the London report that Japanese agents were negotiating for a lea_-e of the isthmus of Kra from Siam before the construction of a canal and naval base there in order to offset the Singapore base was groundless. So was the Bankok lepoi't that, the Singapore authorities had ordered the immediate departure of Japanese submarines which had suddenly arrived to protect two Japanese steamers, the unloading of which had been forbidden. lie added that evidently someone in that region was trying to create friction between Great Britain and Japan.