NAVY AND THE PACIFIC

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 14, 17 July 1923, Page 3

NAVY AND THE PACIFIC

THE SINGAPORE SCHEME

FURTHER CRITICISM.

(»ROH OVK OWN CORBEIPOIISINT.)

LONDON, 18th May. Mr. Lovat Fraser contributes an article to "The Sunday Pictorial" on the question-of the Singapore Naval Base. Although he prefaces it'with a good deal of "Little. Ehg'ander" . sentiment, he submits some solid reasons why such a base should not be at Singapore. ' "We. are told," he. writes; "that the Singapore naval base is really! meant for the protection of Australia and New Zealand. .If that is the case, is it in the .right place? And why should we find all the ships and all the money for such a, doubtful purpose! We ought to wait till the': Dominion. Premiers come to London in the autumnl, and,hear what they have to say "about it." ' One objection the writer raises to the Singapore plan is that modern battleships cannot be permanently ■' based upon' any point near the Equator. '.'The ■ crews could not long exist; in them in such latitudes, especially as'the Admiralty generally send all the stocky, thick-set bluejackets they can find to tropical stations, where they feed them on a diet better suited to Greenland's icy mountains. I know Singapore harbour fairly well, and : one night • there on an ocean liner below deck with the ship at anchor is sufficiently near purgatory for most people. .

I "I .will not pause to -discuss the controversy about big ships," Mr. Fraeer i continues, "though I hold that they are obsolete, and that our future admirals will be more often found in submarines and flying craft. • What is alarming isthe mere prospect of turning Singapore into ..an enormous and costly place of arms. That Singapore is "a •magnificent harbour nobody who hag inspected it can deny; but if <it is to be transformed into a powerful naval base it will. require a big garrison and most extensive and formidable land batteries. MUD WITH NO BOTTOM. "Mr. C. W. Darbishire, M.P., who ought, to know, for he was a member of the Singapore Harbour' Board, says that the 'harbour, contains 'mild with no bottom.' and that it..will Tje difficult to find foundations. Mr. Amery retorts that the Admiralty experts 'inquired into all the , conditions of Singapore before they took action.' My rejoinder is that the Admiralty experts have very often been wrong. Out of many examples I will select one.; Anybody who cares to spend a- couple of pounds or so on a ticket to Jersey will find at Verclut, on the east of that pleasant island, a tremendous derelict breakwater. It. was built by the Admiralty experts to form a harbour of refuge for the old Channel Squadron. After a million or two had been expended it occured to someone to take soundings, and it was found that there was hardly enough depth of water to float a bumboat. That was the end of the Verclut harbour of refuge. ' . ■ ;