WARDER OF THE EAST

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXII, Issue 4642, 20 May 1938, Page 6

WARDER OF THE EAST

SINGAPORE NAVAL BASE. REASONABLE PROTECTION FOR BRITISH POSSESSIONS. NO DIRECT THREAT TO JAPAN. "New Zealand," says the "Scotsman," "contributed £1,000,000 towards the cost, while the colony of HongKong gave £250,000; the Straits Settlements acquired and presented the land- the Federated Malay Straits have subscribed £2,500,000; and in 1935 the Sultan of Jahore made a personal gift of £500,000. The cost of naval works have amounted to about £11,000,000, and it is expected that £20,000,000 will have been spent by the' time the fortifications and Air Force establishments are complete." "Now that the base is built, British possessions over an enormous area are reasonably protected. The sea routes over which it watches are long. It is nearly 2000 miles from Singapore to Port Darwin in Australia, 1440 miles to Hong Kong, and 1630 miles to Calcutta," says the "Manchester Guardian." , 'These distances do not hamper Singapore's usefulness, for it plays the part of a castle in ancient warfare. So long as there is a fleet in being' at Singapore an enemy could not go on to more distant conquests without attacking that standing menace to his communications. _ "Singapore is fortunate in having an ideal harbour, for no other position could have been found of greater strategic strength, and none less threatening to any other Power. Set at the foot of the Malay Peninsula, it looks out towards the Pacific, the Indian and the Southern Atlantic oceans; it is placed astride the route from Japan, China and the antipodes to Europe. , "It is itself the centre of a rich

trade, and in the whole of Asia there are only two ports—Hong Kong and Colombo—whose trade is distinctly larger. Further, its airport, built on what was once a swamp, at a cost of £1,000,000, is an important junction of the air services of the Far East.

"On the other hand, if Singapore has much to defend, the great distances around it limit its usefulness as the starting-point of an aggressive attack. No country can reasonably complain that it is intimidated."

"The Singapore base is, in intention, defensive," says the "Birmingham Post." "That it is also, in fact, defensive anybody who looks at a map will agree. There is no conceivable way in which Singapore can be used, offensively, against Japan.

"More than that, if Japanese policy does force a conflict, the part played by Singapore must still be defensive. Primarily, battleships based on Singapore will be there only to support lesser craft protecting certain seaways of enormous importance to Britain's trade.

"This new base, on all the evidence, is big enough and well enough protected to enable us to keep in and near the China Sea the biggest and perhaps the best battleships afloat. They can be fuelled and cleaned in peacetime; they can be docked and repaired in wartime. What they cannot do—again a glance at the map will establish the point—is to threaten / Japan directly."