The Evening Post. WELLINGTION, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1945.

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 58, 6 September 1945, Page 6

The Evening Post. WELLINGTION, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1945.

SINGAPORE DROPS FROM

JAPS' GRASP

Singapore's past, recalled by General Mac Arthur's thoughtful tribute to General Percival at the signing of Japan's surrender, echoes again as British, Indian, and Empire troops reoccupy this city port, founded by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. The last war-chapter contrasts with all previous chapters in Singapore's century and a half of modern history, but need not depress unduly the elation of this victory moment, for history is again opening a chapter which promises to be entirely new. New militarily and also new in political circumstance. For the body of the Security Council —whatever its limitations —lies across the track of any future aggression plot that may^ be hatched between an Asiatic and a European Power; which means that there can be no new attack of major Powers on Singapore and on the Eastern territorial status unless Russia, America, and Britain" become either partisan or passive to a new looting adventurq. So long as the Big Three continue to hold that the first of their interests is the preservation of peace, Japan cannot repeat the story of her Manchurian aggression, because Japan would in that case be moving not against the moral disapproval of a League of Nations but against the preventive armaments directed by the Security Council. And this vital alteration in the machinery of war prevention is capable of transforming the whole outlook of world peace. The Security Council, in its limited function, can be totally preventive of war—so long as the Great Powers so will.* j And militarily, as well as politically, Ithe picture has altered. Early in the war two British heavy ships were sunk by Japan in the China Sea —a profound blow, but not nearly so profound as the obliteration of Hiroshima which the Emperor of. Japan has just reported to his ancestors. Quickly after the China Sea tragedy the Japanese seized Singapore by local action; just as quickly they have released Singapore under the pressure of distant action against the heart of Japan. Putting these military and political events together, it may be seen that possibly the possession., of Singapore will never again be decided by local action; that Singapore may never again be entered by the Malayan back door, by land forces; and that Japan's far-flung amphibious strategy, reaching out thousands of miles, over the Pacific Ocean and the Indies, may remain a military text-book feature not to be repeated. All these speculations concerning Singapore turn, however, on some unanswered military questions. To what; extent have new military developments—culminating in the atomic bomb, but with higher culminating points in prospect— modified strategy, and undermined the importance of the world's fortress chains and bases in the various oceans and waterways? -Can technology—as some say—abolish strategy? Or is it an exaggeration to suggest that strategy can be wiped out by its own weapons? There is no definite factual answer to such questions; and equally unanswered is the question whether any. new, special steps shall be taken to close Singapore's back door, which was partly governed by the metamorphoses in French Indo-China and Siam (Thailand) in 1942. Political factors affecting Singapore's back door henceforth include the Security Council" as well as Indo-China and Siam, and of course include China, Burma, and India too. But the. strategists still must find their own portion of the answer to the question how to prevent a repetition of Singapore's fall in 1942, termed by Churchill the worst disaster in Britain's military history.

The .central fact of World War II is that both the principal enemies died of blows to the heart, from which their distant strategic posts could not defend them. When Japan was hit in the heart, limbs like Singapore simply dropped off, and could not support the Japanese homeland any more than the obstinate German armies on the Bay of Biscay coast of France could help Hitler.... The far-flung advances and victories of Japan and Germany could not, in the long-term test, correct the deficiencies of their war resources; and surely not even a madman could have hoped for any better result from his aggression had he not gambled on the military chances conferred on him by surprise and by greater preparedness. If the Security Council can eliminate, by preventive measures, this factor of greater preparedness and surprise, the main prop of a Hitler will be removed; and if there can be no Hitler, there can be no backstabbing Mussolini; nor can there be a Japan, waiting two years to measure Hitler's success and then jump on the German loot wagon. When the Japanese opportunists decided, in 1941, that Hitler's war had made for them a sufficient opening, they still had to decide v/hether to make war against Britain alone, or against Britain and America, or against Russia. Why they did not attack Russia is a question which the German Ambassador to Japan seeks to answer by declaring that the Japanese navy wanted an amphibious war and the Japanese army wanted a land war (against Russia) and the navy won. The German Ambassador's statement may not be above suspicion, for the success or failure of his own diplomacy hangs in the issue, and it may suit him to blame the Japanese navy for the fact that Japan failed to help Hitler against Russia. But whether his statement is correct or not, the diplomacy of Hitler remains under an imputation of recklessness, for within six months he not only acted suicidally against Russia but allowed Japan to drag him into war with America. Japan thus sealed Hitler's fate.

In return, what did Hitler receive from Japan? Apparently nothing. Thus does blundering aggression effect, at long last, its own cure. But there is something better than cure, and that is prevention, which is embodied (barring the exercise of vetoes) in the Security Council. What place Singapore may occupy in the Security Council's preventive dispositions, and what . military obligations may fall upon Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, is part of a world plan still to be worked out. It would be a mistake to assume that such obligations are small and inconsiderable.

CROWN TO BRILLIANT CAREER

The appointment of Sir Bernard Freyberg to succeed Sir Cyril Newall as Governor-General of New Zealand will be widely and warmly approved, and both Sir Bernard and Lady Freyberg are assured of the warmest of welcomes when they arrive to assume their new duties. Appointments of viceregal representatives in New Zealand have always been guided by the principle that the GovernorGeneral, like the King himself, should be detached from purely local affairs. For this reason there has been no move to follow the example once given by the Commonwealth Government in recommending the appointment of an Australian to the high 'office—an experiment that was not repeated. In so far as Sir Bernard Freyberg spent his boyhood and early manhood in New Zealand, and' is therefore rightly claimed as a New Zealander, it may be suggested that there has now been some departure from a well-estab-lished and sound principle. But Sir Bernard Freyberg's close association with New Zealand in his youth, renewed by his command of the 2nd New Zealand Division, does not affect this principle of detachment from local affairs. The circumstances are sufficiently exceptional to warrant fully the recommendation and appointment of a New Zealander who has served the King and Empire brilliantly to represent the King in the Dominion. The appointment will not be regarded as a precedent for departing from the principle which has guided the appointment of viceregal representatives in the past. What will appeal most to the public is that Sir Bernard's appointment crowns a long and honourable record of service to the Empire and to this Dominion. His early association with New Zealand was renewed when he was selected to lead the New Zealand Division, and it is entirely fitting that the service given in war leadership should be recognised and a brilliant career crowned by the highest office that will continue that association.