A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 149, 19 March 1936, Page 6

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

•” Singapore Base Mr. Winston Churchill said in the House of Commous that the Singapore Base could not be an offensive base against Japan, The plan for a naval base at Singapore first took definite shape iu 1921 when Mr. Lloyd George was Prime Minister, Lord Lee, First Lord of the Admiralty, aud Mr. L. S. Amery, I'inaucial Secretary to the Admiralty.* It was approved by Cabinet aud the Imperial Defence Committee, and accepted by the Imperial Conference of 1921. The plan again came before the Conservative Government when the Lloyd George-Bonar Law Coalition Government had disappeared. It was again accepted. At the Washington Conference the Singapore Base was expressly excluded from the terni--of the AVashington Treaty in order t<> leave Great Britain complete freedom of action in its construction. Great Britain and the United States bad given up all idea of improving Tloug Kong, Manila, and Guam, and had thereby relieved Japan of all fear that their policy aimed at the preparation of great naval bases witbin comparatively short striking distance o£ that country. Singapore is 8000 miles from England by the Mediterranean aud 12,000 by the Cape route. It is 3000 from Japan. A ileet at Singapore to reach Melbourue or Sydney or Wellington would have to steam between 4000 and 5000 miles. The

A committee set up by the Postmas-ter-General recommends that the Royal Charter of the British Broadcasting Corporation be extended for a terms of 10 years. The beginning of broadcasting in Great Britain followed on developments in America, broadcasting being in operation there from 1920. In 1920 the British Broadcasting Company Limited was formed, combining the interests of six large wireless and electrical manufacturing firms. In November stations were operated at London, Manchester, and Birmingham, and in December at Newcastle. In 1923 the company was established on a national footing, and provided for the extension‘of the sys- . tem by a number of relay stations, hl-’his led in 1925 to the erection of a high-power statiou at Daventry. The operating license of the 8.8. C. expired iu 1926 and a public authority was constituted under Royal Charter, called the British Broadcasting Corporation. The whole stuff, machinery, and other equipment of the company was taken over iutact by the Government, and the supervision exercised by the Post-master-General continued as before. The licensing fee -was fixed at 10/-, payable to the Post Office, and the 8.8. C. is financed by a 75 per cent, share in the revenue from the licenses. In 1927 a second high-power station was erected at Daventry. In 1930-31 a huge building, Broadcasting House, was erected in London for the Corporation's requirements. So rapidly has the corporation expanded, however. that the building is already too small. Mosul Boundary Dispute.

It is stated that the closest parallel to bringing Germany before the League Council is the ease of the Mosul boundary dispute in 1923, when Turkey, a non-member, was an interested party. Mosul, the capital of which is also called Mosul, is a district on the River Tigris, about 220 miles north-west of Bagdad. The district covers a large part of the ancient kingdom of Assyria and forms part of the kingdom of Iraq. One of the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923) stipulated that the boundary between Turkey and Iraq should be laid down by friendly agree-, meat to be concluded between Turkey and Great Britain, who had a mandate over Iraq. In case of disagreement, the question was to be referred to the League of Nations. Direct negotiation failing at Constantinople, the dispute was referred to the League, which appointed a boundary commission to investigate and report. The matter was complicated by tbo racial composition of the territory. Here live Kurds, Arabs, Christians, Turks, Yezidis, aud Jews to the number of SOO,OOO, with Kurds predominating and the others in numbers of much less importance, following the order of the names as given above. A further complication was that the richest grain-growing region in Iraq is in Mosul. Eventually what was called the Brussels Line was accepted. This was a provisional boundary laid down by the League Council at a meeting held at Brussels. The boundary was demarcated in 1927. By treaty a neutral border was established from which raiding bauds were excluded. Turkey was promised 10 per eent of the royalties accruing to Iraq from the oilfields for 25 years. Inhabitants of Turkish uationaliity on the Iraq side of the line were permitted to choose Turkish nationality. French Fortifications

The French Government lias been manning the line of fortifications along the Franco-German frontier. After an inspection of these fortifications, 31. Painleve. then French War Secretary, said: "They will be the most efficient protection against modern aerial and gun bombardment possible to-day. Tito plans inelude a wall of concrete and steel, beside which the famous Hindenburg Line would ap pear as a mere string of sand castles. We have based the defences on the lessons of the last war. Our scheme is a combination of two plans, the first a sort of continued front line, an organised trench system of steel and concrete. The second is a series of regional strongholds. We shall push down along the Rhine where it forms our eastern border and up along the German frontier, where Germany bolds the left bank of the river. Bridgeheads will come in for special attention, and experts deciare that once we have completed the wall of fortifications no soldiery eati ever force it. Our plans do not overlook the south-eastern border. where the Alps divide France and Italy. There the problem is comparatively easy. The fortification of the Belgian frontier will be less important because we cannot build up impreg nable obstacles in face of our friends the Belgians But it must lie reinem bered that we were titiatked once be fore by an enemy which violated Belgium and marched through that State into France The plain is essentially defensive. Far from being a bellicose manifestation, this gigantic 'security scheme is really .1 step forward in our pacific policy. The real fortified strongholds will consist of fortresses, batteries, breast-works, and munition stores, concrete guupits. machine-gun blockhouses, with underground cables for communication.'*