EMPIRE DEFENCE

Evening Star, Issue 18335, 24 July 1923, Page 7

EMPIRE DEFENCE

THE SINGAPORE BASE.

Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright.

LONDON, July 23.

Air J. H. Thomas, M.P. (secretary of tho National Union of EaQwaymcn), speaking at Derby, said he believed that a naval base at Singapore was in direct contravention of the Washington Treaty. They could find better means of spending money than in finding work for Chinamen.—A. and N.Z. Cable. COMMENT EN JAPAN.' BRITAIN’S CONSISTENCY QUESTIONED. TOKIO, July 6. Tho Japanese Press is commenting sarcastically on the fact that the debate in the British House of Commons regarding the proposed naval base at Singapore coincided with the launching of a mammoth submarine, tho very _ typo of warship against which the British delegates to the Washington Conference argued in such denuncintmg terms. The ‘ Niohi-Nichi Shimbun’ Gay.vH-QThe relation between the new British supersubmarine and the great naval base which is about to rise from the swamps and mud of Singapore is more than an accidental coincidence. To people who think and reflect there is cause for grave apprehension as to how these projected implements of butchery aro going to affect Asia in general and Far Eastern Asia in particular. With super-submarines stationed at the Singapore base, it needs no naval strategist to visualise the grave possibilities lying in the womb of time—and of no distant time, either.”

A correspondent in tho same paper declares that ho is glad to see that some British newspapers are wise enough and courageous enough to oppose the plan for tho Singapore base, although many of the foremost English writers— such as ,T. T. Stoddart, IL G. Wells, and Sir Philip Gibbs—aro all raving about Japan’s alleged militarism. While tho sword of tho Samurai, proceeds the writer, has been beaten into a ploughshare, Britain is planning to point the pistol of the Singapore base and the dagger of the supersubmarine at tho heart of Japan. Why, ho asks, are Christian churches silent in such circumstances? Tho writer suggests the summoning of another disarmament conference, for which, ho adds, “this time tho clarion call must come from Tokio.”