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HONGKONG PUSHES ITS DEFENCES

As a result of Japan’s increasing range of military activities in China the British Crown Colony of Hongkong is hurriedly increasing its fortifications, while similar work is being rushed at Singapore (says the ‘ Christian Science Monitor ’). Emergency crews of military and naval engineers, _ technicians, and labourers are working 24 hours a day to complete a 40,000,000d0l programme of harbour, land, and air defences. The hills and islets on the fringes of the colony already are bristling with heavy guns, machine gun, and anti-aircraft emplacements and other preparations for defence by land, air, or water. There are hundreds of searchlights to spot aerial attackers and .mythical raids, and “ blackouts ” are staged periodically to train the populace. British authorities claim that only sufficient precautions are being taken to keep an invading force at bay until help could arrive from Singapore or even Australia or India. Singapore is three dkys away by warship. Heavy-calibre guns are being mounted on the “ peak ’’ above Hongkong and in the high hills just behind Kowloon. The guns are landed and set up only under cover of darkness, and guards bar all approaches to the emplacements. A network of military roads is being thrown across the hills. AIR DEFENCE PREPARED. Japan’s wide scale aerial operations in China convinced British authorities that the colony’s air defences were far from adequate. They ordered expenditure of 350,000d0l for construction of bomb-proof shelters, gas-proof cellars, and de-contamination chambers for civilians at numerous points in congested areas. But to provide a minimum standard of safety from air attacks for Hong Kong’s 1,000,000 civil population it is estimated that 700,000d0l more must be spent for additional equipment against air raids and gas attacks. This would include gas masks_ for all. More than 200 bombing, pursuit, and scouting planes will bo stationed here under the full quota ordered for the colony. The British naval forces now at Hongkong or within easy reach arc considered adequate for the present. There are some 55 ships in Britain’s China Squadron based there, eight of them fast, modern cruisers. The squadron also has an aircraft carrier, 17 first-class mine-laying submarines, each equipped with eight torpedo tubes, and a number of auxiliary craft.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19380226.2.182

Bibliographic details

Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 28

Word Count
367

HONGKONG PUSHES ITS DEFENCES Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 28

HONGKONG PUSHES ITS DEFENCES Evening Star, Issue 22893, 26 February 1938, Page 28