DOCKS FOR SINGAPORE

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 95, 16 January 1926, Page 7

DOCKS FOR SINGAPORE

PLANS FOR EXTENSIVE ACCOMMODATION ,

COMMENTS ON BRITISH ADMIRALTY'S POLICY

AND EFFECT OF NAVAL’ TREATY

Singapore base is to have ' more extensive docking accom. modation than any other British naval establishment. The naval correspondent of the “Daily News” evokes some interesting comments on the British Ad. rniralty’s policy.

London, January 14. The “Daily News’s” naval correspondent understands that a number of the principal shipbuilders are consulting the Admiralty regarding the construction of a gigantic floating dock, in connection with the Singapore base, capable of lifting a 50,000-ton ship, although the heaviest British warship, H.M.S. Hood, weighs 41,000 tons, and future ships under the Washington Treaty weigh a maximum of 35,000 tons.

It is expected that there will be keen competition for the dock, which will cost £1,000,000. Singapore will also have a double graving dock to accommodate two super-dreadnoughts. The base will thus have more extensive docking accommodation. than any other British naval establishment, suggesting that it is the intention to station the major part of the Battle Fleet in Eastern waters.

The reasons for this policy remain obscure. Singapore will not be completed before 1934, and Britain’s Navy will be reduced by 1935 under the Washington Treaty to 16 capital ships, and Japan’s to nine dreadnoughts. Either British naval opinion regards the south-western corner of the Pacific as a strategic centre, demanding the presence of the bulk of the fleet, or it is taking measures to forestall the contingency of the Washington . Treaty shortly becoming invalid and inoperative.—Sydney “Sun” Cable.