SINGAPORE BASE

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 50, 22 November 1928, Page 9

SINGAPORE BASE

NO EXTRA CHARGES ON STRAITS SETTLEMENTS

(British Official Wireless.) Rugby, November 19. Mr. Ormsby-Gore, Under-Secretary for the Colonies, was asked in Parliament whether any extra charges for naval and aerial armaments and establishments at Singapore arising out of the naval base would be thrown on the Exchequer of the Straits Settlements. He replied in the negative. GREAT GUNS FOR DEFENCE OF BASE Three gigantic 18-incb % 'uns, said to be the largest in the world, were shipped in September to Singapore for the defence of the base. They are the only guns of their kind, and, as the largest warship guns at present are 16-inchers, they will be able to out-range the most powerful ship afloat. These celebrated wartime weapons, says the “Daily News.” are 60 feet long, weigh 150 tons each, and fire a projectile weighing 33331 b. They are the only 18-inch guns that have been completed. Oue was mounted on H.M.S. Furious for the late Admiral Fisher's projected campaign in the Baltic, but the few rounds fired so shook tire ship that the gun was removed, and the Furious became an aircraft carrier. The three guns were next mounted on monitors in order to bombard the German coastal positions in Belgium, but the war ended before they were fully tested.