THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, JULY 15, 1929. THE SINGAPORE BASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20307, 15 July 1929, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS MONDAY, JULY 15, 1929. THE SINGAPORE BASE.

If there be any foundation for the growing belief that the Labour Government contemplates the abandonment of the Singapore base or a drastic modification of the scheme, then its assertions of concern for the British Empire cannot be accepted as sincere. To call a halt at Singapore would be to do the Dominions a distinct disservice. Thcv have given practical proof of their wish that the base should be completed as the experts of the Admiralty have consistently intended. According to their means they have contributed to the scheme. When Mr. Mac Donald was previously in office they expressed their anxiety at delay in the work, and heaved an audible sigh of relief when, under the succeeding Government, a contract for the floating dock was let. The dock is now in position, but adequate defences have yet to be provided and also oil-fuel reserves and repair facilities ashore. Without these additions, the dock is of no strategicvalue; and the free gift of land by the Straits Settlements, together with the cash contributions of the Malay States, Hongkong and NewZealand, and the promise made by Australia, might just as well not have been given. Apparently, the Labour Government is disposed to excuse its expected decision by saying that it does not want to throw good money after bad, but as much of the money spent was that of other people, who honestly believed it to be quite good, such an excuse would convey a reflection to be resented. It cannot be pleaded, however, that the Government is unaware of the value of the base to some of the Dominions. When the contract for the floating dock was let, Labour spokesmen in the Commons asked significant questions as to what part of the cost some of the Dominions were going to pay, as the expenditure was an insurance of their interests. Their criticism thus rested on an admission of the Dominion aspect of the facts. Therefore, by stopping the project, they palpably do more than try to save the pocket of the British taxpayer: they tell these Dominions that they will not be party to an insuring of their interests. After their naive admission that the full development of the base is vital to these Dominions there is little call to emphasise this aspect,' But the project affects a wider issue. The effective mobility of the Royal Navy —the fleet whose puissance is often made an argument by opponents of military training as unnecessary—depends in great measure on this project. To those whose range of thought does not extend east of Suez this idea may be difficult to grasp, but there is sober truth in it. The Empire is one. It may as fatally be struck by the severance of a remote artery as by the plunging of a sword into its heart. Viewed thus, the Orient and the Pacific arc not by any means negligible regions when defence has to be considered. Said Dr. John R. Mott, better qualified to speak on this than are most men, "The signs arc rapidly multiplying showing that already the centre of gravity of the world's attention and concern has shifted from the Atlantic to the Pacific." In the changing conditions that are making this "third Mediterranean" what he believes must be the world's chief theatre of interest in the twentieth century, it is imperative, if the communications of the Empire arc to be kept inviolate, that an efficient naval gateway be established in its western approaches, for no such advantageous spot offers elsewhere. Only Little Englanders, I welcoming the prospect of the Empire's being broken up, could dream of sacrificing this sole strategic point. Commenting on New Zealand's action in making a contribution to the cost of the base, the New York Times —surely no partisan sympathiser—praised it as assisting in "the protection of Britain's farflung lines of commerce and communication." This endorsement is in line with general foreign opinion. At the Washington •conference, Japan concurring, the full development of the base was explicitly favoured by the naval Powers as a defensive, not an aggressive, policy for Britain to pursue. Those who talk of its abandonment as a peaceful gesture to Japan conveniently forget this finding, in spite of Mr. Asquith's statement soon afterward in the Commons that the development of the base was not in any way a lireach of the Washington agreement. Characteristically illogical, opponents of the programme have said in one breath that the expenditure is useless and that its pursuit is a cause of alarm to other nations. How the abandonment of a naval base not now effectively useful, and destined, in their declared opinion, to have no utility when it is com-

pleted, can be accepted I >y any nation, say Japan, as a gesture of peace, is an unanswerable) conunch um. The nations for whom the gesture is intended arc not likely to waste any thought on it. Japan, at all events, has made an official announcement that she does not regard the development of the base as a menace, and consequently she cannot he expected to lie impressed liy the gesture. Designed as a purely defensive precaution, essential to the complete mobility of the Navy, (he project might to lie completed. Of course, to those who view the Kmpirc lightly, the fact. of .Singapore's defensive value is of small moment. I»u t. when Mr. MacDonald and his Foreign Minister go to Geneva in September, they may be made arrestingly aware that their status there rests on their representation, not of the United Kingdom—for it has no separate representation —but of the Kmpirc. Doubtless the rediscovery will not'displease them, for they will wish to put Britain's eagerness to share international cooperation on ns brondlv impressive a base ns possible. Why, then, should they and their colleagues forget the Kmpirc now and be slow to discharge their responsibility to it? What their predecessors were glad to remember and see acknowledged at Washington, and they themselves will be fain to recollect at Geneva, ought profitably to have remembrance now.