SINGAPORE BASE Australia Opposed To British Moving

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31041, 22 April 1966, Page 11

SINGAPORE BASE Australia Opposed To British Moving

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, April 21. The Australian Government would not help any plan to move the British military base from Singapore and had not agreed to join with Britain in looking for an alternative site, “The Times” defence correspondent wrote today.

“Should Britain’s position there suddenly become untenable, the Australians say they will then cooperate in making a joint service study of alternative base areas in north-west Australia,” the correspondent wrote.

“They do not at present accept that politics in Malaysia may become so volatile that Britain's enormous commitment in Singapore could be insecure overnight.” The correspondent said no reasonable alternative to Singapore was considered likely in London. Although the Australian Government was persuaded by the Defence Secretary (Mr Healey) in February “to pay lip service to the idea of an Australian base for British forces, the idea has progressed almost no farther." The Australian unwillingness to co-operate in any British move from Singapore “has fixed British strategy on set lines, whether Whitehall likes it or not,” the correspondent wrote. “Britain’s continued presence in the Indian Ocean will depend on the continued occupancy of Singapore. NO TIME “Should the Singapore base prove hard to hold, Britain’s whole east-of-Suez position will collapse with it, because by then there will hardly be time to build and develop alternative sites in Australia.” Australia’s case for Britain remaining in Singapore “rests not only on its wish to keep the defence of South-east Asia as far from Australian shores as possible,” the correspondent wrote. “There are economic reasons, as Australians suspect that the capital costs of building any new base would be beyond the Australian defence budget. The chances of securing joint contributions from Britain and America would not be very high. “The Americans would also like to see Britain remain in Singapore, and see no need for their own defence forces to have a base in Australia.”

The fact that Britain's Far East strategy would be a hostage to the fate of the Singa pore base was doubly signifi cant in London because of the visits of Australia’s Foreign Minister (Mr llasluck) and Singapore’s Prim® Minister (Mr Lee Kuan Yew) the correspondent wrote. NO SIGN OF PACT "Although Mr Lee’s statements have shown a desire for Britain to remain in Singapore—-the base means about £5O million a year to the island’s economy—there is still no sign of a more formal defence agreement between Britain and Singapore “The British and Australians woud favour an agreement which involved Malaysia and Singapore as cosignatories, but the prospects of a joint Malaysia-Singapore approach are not favourable because of the intermittent

political bickering and illfeeling which characterises relations between the two countries. “In these circumstances there might seem to be a danger that the continued absence of an agreement, and the continued asperity between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, could combine not only to make Britain's position insecure, but also to embroil Britain unwillingly in the arguments between the two. “A further danger Is that the fluidity of the Indonesian situation might set Kuala Lumpur and Singapore pursuing different policies towards Djakarta. “In this situation, too. the British base could become an embarrassment to Whitehallaggravated if Britain had no constitutional case for being in Singapore in the first place.”