THE SINGAPORE BASE

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 111, 4 February 1935, Page 8

THE SINGAPORE BASE

It is difficult to understand Mr. Ward Price’s emphatic condemnation in the Daily Mail of the Singapore naval base unless it may be supposed that he is seconding ‘ Lord Rothermere’s strong advocacy in that journal, of which he is the ruling spirit, of intensive concentrated expenditure on military aircraft. This presumption derives some justification from the writer’s contention that “Australia for a fraction of the cost of Singapore could be equipped with an air force capable of destroying hostile warships and transports 500 miles from the coast.” Mr. Price in his zeal to demolish the Base has overlooked the factors in the general strategy of the Pacific, and must have forgotten the protests made by both New Zealand and Australia, especially the latter, when it was proposed during the regime of a Labour Government in Britain to stop work on that important naval The business’ of naval grand strategy is to plan for possibilities even if these should include what might seem at the time to be improbabilities. On the logic pursued by Mr. Price the United States Naval Base at Pearl Harbour, Honolulu, is as much a “white elephant” as he considers the Singapore Base is likely to be. X What naval strategy has •to consider, among other things, is the safety of communications along the food supply routes, and the question of providing a base for repairs and equipment for convoy ships as well as the fighting squadrons. The Singapore Base is an essential pivotal point not only for operations in the Pacific,, but also for the Indian Ocean. Its completion will not relieve the contiguous British communities in India, the East African coast, the Malay States, Australia and New Zealand from taking adequate measures for their own defence, but it will ensure their effectiveness by providing a base of naval operations to -deal with enemy ships upjjroaching too near their coasts in formidable numbers. So far as Australia and New Zealand are concerned Mr. Price’s remarks are not likely to be accorded sympathetic attention.