NAVAL DEFENCE

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 226, 23 August 1929, Page 6

NAVAL DEFENCE

There is still a certain amount of uneasiness felt in regard to the completion of the naval base at Singapore. The change of Government in the Mother Country has left the settlement of the much debated question whether the base is essential to the protection of British States and subjects in the Pacific and the Far East, or not. Australia and New Zealand are agreed that it is, the Straits Settlement and HongKong are also in agreement with that idea. The British Prime Minister, Mr Ramsay MacDonald, apparently holds a contrary opinion and presumably most of his colleagues will be found adopting his views upon the matter. But the Government of Great Britain is pledged to the Dominions, by the actions of its predecessors in office, by the acceptance of the financial assistance offiered by certain of the Empire' States which have already contributed largely to the cost of the scheme. Mr MacDonald seems to think it will be sufficient to equip Singapore as a mercantile, rather than a naval base. But his opinion in that, direction is countered by what he I ought to regard as a mandate

from the late Administration, backed up by the Dominions, who have already contributed more towards the work of constructing the base than has been expended by the Government of Great Britain. Some £3,000,000 —three sevenths of the cost—has been promised by the Straits Settlement and New-Zealand towards the cost of the naval base, the construction of which has been undertaken to make possible the presence in Pacific waters of British battleships and cruisers, by providing a station where they can be docked and refitted, under adequate protection while they are being thus overhauled. There has never been the intention to make the base a centre for offence ; its functioning is purely that of defence and for the protection of shipping engaged on the trade routes between India and the Far East. As matters stand at present the nearest station at which British battleships can be docked and /overhauled, in the event of mishap, is at Malta in the Mediterranean; hence, _if battleships are to operate with safety in the Pacific, the Singapore naval base becomes a necessity, and repudiation of the agreement substantially entered into by the Baldwin Administration and the Dominions and States contributing to the cost of the base should be unthinkable. Mr MacDonald’s right-hand man, Mr Philip Snowden (Chancellor of the Exchequer) does not view the expenditure on the base as either desirable or necessary and, unfortunately, that gentleman has made it very clear that he does not consider himself bound by the commitments of his predecessors. His chief has, however, promised that no; steps will be taken in regard to Singapore until the Dominions have been consulted upon the matter. It is understood that both Mr Stanley Bruce, the Australian Prime Minister, and Sir Joseph Ward have, on behalf of their respective Dominions, stressed the necessity for completing the base, which they regard as vital to the defence of British and Empire interests in the Pacific, and there is reason to hope, therefore, that there will be no interference with the works in progress.