THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1929. THE BASE AT SINGAPORE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20420, 23 November 1929, Page 12

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1929. THE BASE AT SINGAPORE.

Impressed with the mora] necessity of consulting "the subscribing communities," Mr. Mac Donald has given an assurance that a change of policy concerning the Singapore base will not be made without such consultation. This is satisfactory as far as it goes. Presumably, this consultation will not bo hurried. Mr. MacDonald's expectation is that the Five Powers Naval Conference in Japan will reach so definite an agreement about general naval disarmament that the completion of the modernising of the base will be rendered unnecessary. It may ; but there is reason to fear that he is over-sanguine. Nothing short of a complete disarmament, going far beyond anything yet in sight, and covering land and air forces as well as navies, could give the Empire adequate security. This is not likely to be reached for some considerable time, certainly not before a comprehensive review of the whole subject is made by a fully international conference, summoned by the League of Nations. The utmost to be hoped from the Five Powers Conference is an agreement on a formula covering naval disarmament, this formula to be furnished to the League's preparatory commission as a part of necessary data for the completion of its initial task. Thereafter, its findings will become the basis of consideration by individual Governments, and time will have to be allowed for their examination of the proposals, the submission of their decisions in some detail to Parliaments, and .the giving of instructions to delegations sent to the League conference. To hold up work at Singapore until all these steps have been taken would be a very serious thing, and protests from the contributing Dominions and colonies are therefore now in order.

It should not be forgotten that Imperial Conferences have taken the view that the modernising and adequate equipment of the base are essential to the security of the Empire. The matter had full discussion in the Imperial Defence Committee of the last conference, and there was absolute unanimity in general support of this view. Of course, geographical considerations made the question of greater or less local concern to the various participants in the discussion, but acceptance of the principle was universal. It should be remembered also that this acceptance was more than academic. The contributions referred to in Mr. Mac Donald's latest statement have been a pledge of practical concern. From the Straits Settlements has come a valuable gift of necessary land : the Federated Malay States have made a contribution of £2,000,000; Hongkong has given £250,000; New Zealand is committed to the amount of £1,000,000, the total contribution to be spread over the period, expected to be eight or ten years, required for the construction work; Australia, hindered by the demands of a local programme of naval construction covering five years, has made no contribution, but has declared its belief that the base is absolutely essential and its readiness to give financial aid later; India has expressed a willingness to co-operate. The amount spent by the British Government has been comparatively small; a first contribution, £160,000, was voted in the Navy estimates of 1923 ; then the Labour Government held up the work for more than a year ; on the return of Mr. Baldwin's Government to office provision was made in the Navy estimates for the resumption of the work, but the contributions from outlying, possessions have been mainly drawn upon for it. Thus it will be seen that these possessions have shouldered the chief part of the burden. They did not initiate the scheme—that was done by the Coalition Government in June of 192 C the first public announcement being made by Mr. Lloyd George, then Prime Minister, in October of that year—but it is from the Dominions and colonies that the main contributions have come. Th«i case for their being consulted before there is any change of policy is consequently so strong as to call for little argument. On the main aspect of the question, also, little more needs to be said. It was effectively uttered in Mr. Lloyd George's declaration that certain bases abroad needed modernising and in some cases extending, including those of the Pacific. Those who regard cessation of the development of the base, beyond the privately-owned docks in the south of the island of Singapore, as an impressive gesture of peace, are in error. The considered judgment of the Washington Conference of 192122, the favouring declaration of Japan, ar.d the gratification of Holland at a decision making (secure from molestation her valuable possessions in the East Indies, all emphasise the peaceful intent represented in the plan of developing the base. With such foreign agreement about that intent, it is straining facts beyond reason to speak of cessation of work at Singapore as a gesture of peace. It is admittedly giving up nothing of any seriously potential aggressive nature. The gesture is empty of real meaning. In reality, the Empire is dependent, and is likely to be dependent for many a day, on the mobility of its fleet, and for this mobility, in the Indian and Pacific Oceans and in the China Sea, adequate provision is required at Singapore. When there is no longer any possibility of war, and the need for keeping inviolate the sea highways that are tho Empire's necessary avenues of intercommunication has vanished, tho policy of adequately maintaining this base may be relinquished. Has that time arrived 1 ? We must guard against a merely sentimental thought

fathered by a wish. Two ways only of enjoying vital Imperial security can bo conceived : either universal peace musfc be so fixedly established as to give security, or there must be sufficient means of defending the sea-roads. Whichever way is taken, the security must be complete. Common sense dictates that adequate dofence of the vitally necessary searoads must bo maintained until all menace of their safety has been removed by fully effective international abandonment of war. A security that rests on a peradventure is no security at all, and those who would complacently place it there are no true friends of peace.