SINGAPORE BASE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 18 August 1927, Page 5

SINGAPORE BASE.

MR WILFORD REPLIES TO MR HOWARD. I*. I.KOKAPH - PRESS ASSOCIATION.I WELLINGTON, Aug. 17. At the close of the formal business in the House of Representatives, Air. T. M. Wilford asked leave to make a personal explanation with reference to some statements made in the House last night by Mr. E. J. Howard. Amidst considerable interjection from the Labour benches, Air. Wilford said lie regretted that a severe cohl had kept him out of the House while the member for Christchurch East was speaking. Had he been present he would have answered immediately the misrepresentations to which Air. Howard had favoured the House.

Air. Howard had stated that he (Air. Wilford) had said that Britain’s cruiser strength was below- that of Japan, especially in regard to speed, and that Japan was building cruisers at a rapid rate. Air. Howard had quot cd Brassey’s Naval Annual to show there had been no change in the relative strength of the battle fleets of the leading naval Powers owing to the influence of the Washington Treaty. “I never said,” declared Alia Wilford, “Britain’s cruiser strength was below that of Japan, and such statement is absolutely incorrect, because 1 was referring to light cruisers, and anyone who knows anything of naval affairs must be aware of the difference. What I did say was that the Rt. Hon. L. C. M. S. Amery had said, as shown in the British Hansard from which I quoted, ‘the submarine position in April, 1929, is that we shall have 31 effective submarines, the United States 122, Japan 73 and France 03,’ and I further said that lie stated that the answer to submarines was cruisers. ’ ’

As to the speed of the Japanese light cruisers exceeding that of British light cruisers, he (Mr. Wilford) quoted from a document, a copy of which he held, and the other copy of which the Government held, showing that the Washington Treaty had no effect upon future programmes in the construction of light cruisers, destroyers -and submarines, and he further quoted from a passage which reads as follows: “A study of the tables will show that our position in regard to light cruisers our vis-a-vis, Japan,, is distinctly disquieting, and that a programme of light cruiser construction is now imperatively necessary. Of the Japanese light cruisers, 22 of them have a great superiority in speed (four to five knots) over any of our light cruisers, except the two of the E class. The majority of them are also bigger ships and of considerably later date.”

Continuing, Mr. Wilford said the member for Christchurch East had said ho (Mr. Wilford) professed to make public for the first time the “six secret clauses’’ of those demands. “That is a direct misrepresentation, for I said during my remarks about the six secret clauses that the world does not know these six secret clauses, and that when Japan presented them to China she never published them. I also stated,’’ said Mr. Wilford, “ that America found these clauses out and published them. What I intended to convey was that they had never been published here, and that I intended to publish them, which I did.”

Mr. Howard had stated that these “six secret clauses,” as they are called, were published in a book lie had seen, and inferred that he (Mr. Wilford) had obtained them from that book. That was not so. for he had not seen the book, but his information was gained from an unimpeneable source.