IMPREGNABLE FORTRESS OF SINGAPORE

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 142, 12 March 1938, Page 8 (Supplement)

IMPREGNABLE FORTRESS OF SINGAPORE

Milestone On Empire Defences

Take the map of Asia and find the southernmost tip of the Malay Peninsula, says C. A. Lyon in the “Sunday Express.” There you will see an island in size and shape not unlike the Isle of Wight. Like the Isle of Wight it is cut oft’ from the mainland by a narrow channel. Its shore is tlanke'd by islets. Inland, the scenery consists of hills, swamps, jungle and rubber plantations. The name of the island is Singapore. This is the island upon which the eyes of the world are fixed. This the island that is the key to the East. Britain has just finished making a supposedly impregnable stronghold of it. We are told that the opening of this base is as great a parting of the ways for- the British Empire as when we first fortified the Rock of Gibraltar in the eighteenth century. But why? What is Singapore’s real significance? Why and how was the new Gibraltar built? Why is it necessary to have armed forces at Singapore? Look at the map again.

Across the map in a great bow are seven lands of vital importance to Britain. Their names are South Africa, India, Burma, Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Australia, New Zealand. All these lands except one are British. North of them- is another land with which we have close connections— China. It is almost inconceivable how reliant we are on these lands, how every inhabitant of Britain would feel the effect if our trade with them were stopped.

From these lands come 97 per cent, of the tea we import; 97 per cent, of the jute; the greater part of the rubber ; 50 per cent, of the cheese and butter ; 89 per cent, of the wool; 25 percent. of the petrol. They give us sugar, coffee, maize and rice. Tea, coconuts and mangoes. They have “precious” metals, gold, platinum and silver, and metals more precious still —copper, nickel and lead. They have diamonds. They have sixty per cent, of the world’s tin. Possessions an’d rights to sources of supply such as these must be defended. And the one spot which is the natural base for defending them by reason of its geographical position is—Singapore. Singapore, with £200,000,000 worth of British shipping on the sea every day between it and Suez. Singapore with three-quarters of the land territory of the British Empire within striking distance. Now imagine Singapore as it is, finished, and the largest, best-equipped

and most strongly defended British base east of Suez.

There is a full Navy yard, with few counterparts in the world, with a 2200feet quay. Modern battleships need to be drydocked twice a year.

At Singapore two of the biggest of them can be taken out of the water at the same time —either in the great graving dock or in the floating dock. Cranes with a lifting power up to 150 tons will whip out their boilers and heavy guns with ease. The two biggest ships in the British Navy can be docked and repaired together. The ships will be refuelled out of stores of fuel which are enough to run a whole fleet for six months. Many of these stores are underground. Their total capacity is said to be 1,250,000 tons.

They can be re-ammunitioned from the underground ammunition stores of the island. Transport is carried on by seventeen miles of new railway. There are four airports on the island, with steel hangars and every modern equipment. Between them they could house a whole air force. Most of the hills on,the island have been enclosed with barbed wire and converted into gun emplacements. They are alive with 134 in. and anti-aircraft guns.

The islets which command the approaches to the island are bristling with batteries.

Japanese planters overlooking Singapore from the mainland in the Sutanate of Johore have been evicted. They had been allowed to settle through a strange official lack of imaginativeness. It was found that they had an inordinate fondness for tennis. They built so many tennis courts that the authorities became interested. v It was found that the courts were of thick concrete, highly suitable for gun emplacements. So, there you see Singapore as it is. Its defences, its role as one of the two or three most important strongholds of the world. Is it really impregnable?

There jis one small cloud in Singapore’s sky. Seven hundred miles north of Singapore the Malay Peninsula narrows to an isthmus only twenty-five miles wide. It would be an easy task to cut a canal through the soft alluvial soil of this isthmus.

There are repeated reports that Japan, which is cultivating friendly relations with Siam, means to try to do this.

If this happens, Japan would have a by-pass to the Indian Ocean and the East Indies, without touching Singapore. Then the fat would be in the fire.