BRITISH INTERESTS IN THE PACIFIC

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22610, 16 January 1939, Page 8

BRITISH INTERESTS IN THE PACIFIC

Supreme Importance of Singapore

Base

NEW ZEALAND’S CONTRIBUTION TO

NAVAL DEFENCE

(SPECIALLY 'WHITTES EOB THE PRESt: IBy FRANK MILNER.] (ID

In his concluding article Mr Milner emphasises the commanding importance of the Singapore Base as a vital pivot in Britain’s system of defence. He contends that Australia and New Zealand must be fully co-ordinated in defence, both external and domestic, and urges on New Zealand the need for a greater contribution towards naval defence.

There is one thing and one thing only that can bring Japan to reason and halt this bloody business, and that is Anglo-American sanctions, first economic, and then, if necessary, naval. The economic vulnerability of Japan is more intensified than that even of Italy. Freda Utley’s book "Feet of Clay” is now a classic in this special province. Britain and United States in conjunction, by putting embargoes on the supply of cotton, petrol, iron, copper, and other war materials to Japan, and by rejecting her silk, could hamstring this dynamic Power in a few months.

Australia's supply. Chinese iron ore. owing to surplus of silica, does not satisfy Japanese needs. The attractiveness of the sudden drive for Japan lies in the comparative richness and variety of basic materials. Australia alone has 14 of the 25 essential raw materials specified on the Geneva official list. Combined with the East Indies and New Guinea she actually provides 21 out of the 25.

White Australia. Doctrine

Australia is 11 times as large as tha Japanese Empire in area, and possesses only one-eleventh of her population! The Northern territory, with 3687 inhabitants, lost in the vast space of its 523,620 square miles, is a standing invitation and provocation to Japanese racial congestion. Feeling ran high in Japan when, in 1901, the first Federal Parliament hastened to place the Australian' Immigration Restriction Act on the Statute Book. It was characterised in Japan as “an offence against humanity,” and as “an insulting piece of legislation.” Beyond any cavil this doctrine to-day meets with the fullest unanimity. Australians stand four square behind the historic declaration of Sir Henry Parkes which he made in 1888. Sir Alfred Deakin, as Federal Prime Minister, referred to it as the corner stone of national policy. Naval Defence In the last five years the Australian defence vote has jumped from £4,000,000 to £20,000,000, even though Australia is definitely assu cd of full British naval co-operation in case of attack or blockage of sea communications. Recently the Commonwealth Treasurer, speaking for the Federal Cabinet, said, “It would be a very poor outlook for us if Australia could not rely on British co-operation. With her own resources she could not face a determined aggressor. Australia in the last resort is still dependent on the British Fleet, but she cannot sit back and rely on the _ -dsh taxpayer.” Consequently, for the next three years the' defence vote has jumped to an aggregate of £63,000,000 in lieu of the normal £44,500,000. The New Zealand defence vote is not proportionately comparable. Australia and New Zealand must be fully co-ordinated in defence, both external and domestic. To both, in view of Japanese penetration, the maintenance of the territorial status quo right from the Philippines through the Dutch East Indies and Timor to India is a vital concern. Australian centres are exposed to bombing air raids from sporadic cruisers, and so are the Cockatoo dockyards at Sydney, the Broken Hill Proprietary Steel Works at Newcastle, and the Australian Iron and Steel Company at Port Kembla. The Australian Division of the Royal Navy consists of two Washington cruisers (10,000 tons), one modem light cruiser (7000 tons), one older cruiser (5200 tons), one flotilla leader with four destroyers, two escort ships, one seaplane carrier. Besides her naval training ship and Imperial escort ships. New Zealand has two Leander type modern cruisers (7000 tons). For concentration at Singapore the Royal Navy can command from Malayan, Chinese, Australian. and New Zealand waters the following force:—Seven Washington cruisers, eight modern light cruisers. 17 destroyers with flotilla leaders, 15 submarines, 15 escort vessels, one aircraft carrier, one seaplane carrier, 25 ancillary vessels.' The submarines are among the largest and best in the Royal Navy. Such a force, even to-day, pending the arrival of the promised five capital ships at Singapore, imperils the safety of any hostile expeditionary force. It cannot only protect trade routes, but can also conduct guerrilla warfare. In the near future the concentration at Singapore of a powerful force of bombing aeroplanes, reinforced heavily from contiguous areas, viz., from Hong Kong to New Zealand and India, is an assured development of defensive policyNew Zealand and External Defence In pursuit of strategical security New Zealand’s historical policy since the days of Seddon has beer exclude potential aggressors from ,ie South Pacific. Our relations with Samoa have notably illustrated this trend. Feeling in New Zealand is as keen as in Australia against retrocession of her mandate to Germany. This feeling is political, not economic. There is a distinct fear that in case of cession the anti-Cominterm Pact may mean the ultimate utilisation of Samoa by *> a P“, n as a naval and air base. New Zealand* annual subventions to the Singapore Base aggregating £1,000,000 indicate her realisation of Imperial strategical needs and the fact that they dominate considerations of local defence. New Zealand's territorial insignificance ana her traditional British affiliations make . her keenly conscious in these days or , Pacific stress of her absolute depend- i ence on the Royal Navy. In ■ the disproportionate sacrifices made oy . the Motherland, our own appropriation I for naval defence is surely no valid A measure of this general feeling. m

Japan has never forgotten nor forgiven the American Exclusion Act of 1924. In her exacerbated state the imposition of sanctions probably means war. But with the Singapore Base now available, the overwhelming superiority of the two investing navies, backed by illimitable resources and credits, must inevitably gain its end no matter what contemporaneous Mediterranean diversions arise. The Chicago speech of President Roosevelt, followed by his more recent warning to the totalitarian states, the huge votes for the navy and air forces, and the embargo placed since July 1 last on the export of war munitions to Japan are indications that an even sterner policy may follow as public feeling is more keenly aroused. America has yet to learn that even the collaboration of the moral pressure of the English-speaking peoples will not debar a totalitarian lawbreaker any more than did the Wilsonian type-writer. The peace of the world to-day demands more than ■words. That was Stlmsorv’s mistake at the Manchukuo crisis of 1931-32. The Implications in his book “The Far Eastern Crisis" notwithstanding, never throughout the whole period of tension did America offer to collaborate in sanctions of any type. Despite the legend, which cannot now be overtaken, Britain did not let down America over Manchukuo. Concerted sanctions were never in sight. Those who attended the recent Empire Relations Conference at Lapstone were given irrefutable proof of the fact, Singapore Base' Let us now praise famous men, and among them Stamford Raffles, who 120 years ago had the prescience to grasp the strategic possibilities of Singapore Island, and the daring to hoist the British flag over it. Any Admiralty chart of our mercantile. marine shows its commanding importance. In view of the grave international situation, its completion to-day is a veritable Godsend. No wonder that last month .40 British officers from the Quetta Staff College were carrying out their annual tactical and strategical exercises at this significant post. Mr Lyons’s Pacific Regional Pact was stillborn, but Singapore fills its place. The Labour Government of New Zealand, in spite of former opposition, officially blesses it. The security of the 'Empire, and of its main lines of communication, is the first call on us all. Australia recognised that last year, when Mr Curtin, head of the Federal Labour Party, advocating purely local defence, challenged Mr Lyons on the point of his Imperial co-operative policy, and was defeated. Australia and New Zealand have one major means of defence —the Royal Navy. We depend for our life on our protection from predatory aggressors. We depend for our sustenance on our one great stable market at London, and on the safety of the sea routes that lead to it. As it stands to-day, with the League of Nations hamstrung and eviscerated, the world’s collective security is the Royal Navy at its Mediterranean post, silent, sure, and efficient. Implications for Australia and New Zealand Professor Alfred Toynbee, the authoritative expert of the Royal International Institute, has, not only in “Pacific Affairs,” but elsewhere in his writings, expressed amazement at the complacency with which both Australia and New Zealand regard the direction in which the Japanese tiger has made its spring. He tells us not to believe that the tiger will fully slake its thirst on Chinese blood. We forget that such an unholy appetite runs amok. Moreover, when its first victim proves skinny and unappetising, the beast of prey will find an irresistible attraction in juicy bodies across the water. The professor adds that unfortunately this Pacific drama has more than, one act, and that we in the south will be fortunate if we are not active or passive participants in the denouement. Our Raw Materials We are now realising that the Far East becomes to us the Near North. Science annihilates space daily, and our complacency is being rudely disturbed as we learn more of the policy and activities of the naval expansionist school of Japan and its advocacy of exploitation of Nan-yo (South Seas). What counts in raiding excursions is not the mileage between Yokohama and Sydney but that between Palau and New Guinea. The survey recently made by Dr. Charles Leith, of Wisconsin Uhiversity, ex-President of the United States Geological Society, reveals the paucity of basic minerals and essential war material in the Far East. His findings confirm the statements of Foster Bain’s book “Ores and Industry in the Far East.” This applies not merely to 'oil. for which Japan is increasingly looking to Borneo and Sumatra. but to coking coal. iron, copper, rubber, and cotton. Japan practically monopolises the iron ore of Malaya and the pig iron of north-east India. • She has attempted the wholesale exploitation of even Western