THE SINGAPORE BASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20556, 6 May 1930, Page 10

THE SINGAPORE BASE.

With very good reason, the naval correspondent of the Morning Post has challenged the argument that there is no need to proceed steadily with the Singapore base now that a "capital-ship holiday" has been declared by the Naval Conference. ; The development of the base is essential to the mobility of the British fleet, and its service in this respect is not vitally affected by any lessening of the likelihood that it will be required for capital ships, even supposing that no need may arise for sending ships of that size to the Far East. In equipping it with a battleship graving dock this possibility .was, of course, in mind; and the possibility has not been removed by the agreement reached at tho conference. To argue from this agreement to a cessation of constructive and equipping work at the base is to proceed on an insufficient j premise. But. if the need for serv- | ing battleships were proved to be j now non-existent, the base would re- ! tain its essential value, so far as its j main equipment is concerned, as a refitting and refuelling aid to cruisers. It was so designed in the first instance, and it is instructive to j ntfte that; tho first warship to use j the floating dock was a cruiser, the ; Cumberland, on her way from China 1 last year. Beside this use, it is apparent that tho increasing volume of trade in the Far East, in vessels of increasing size, calls for some such provision. It is clearly understood that the large dopk is available for merchant vessels when it is not in use for naval purposes. Any serious slowing v down of the developmental work would entail the immediate payment of large sums in compensation for the cancelling of contracts, sums equalling a large part of tho whole cost of the base. This aspect of the matter might seem negligible, if the equipping of the base on modern lines could be shown to bo provocative of international friction, as the Labour Government's pronouncements assume. As to this, it was Mr. Mac Donald himself, speaking on March 18, 1924, from his place in the House of Commons as Prime Minister, who showed that the argument,that the Singapore scheme traversed the agreement reached at Washington was quite unsound ; and the general situation is to-day what it was then. The opening of the floating dock has not been followed I>y any change in the relations of the leading naval Powers rior in the distribution of the British squadrons and flotillas east of Suez. It was not expected that it would be. As an item of national insurance and an influence for maintaining peace in the Far East and tho Pacific, the base is nevertheless a valuable provision, and to call a halt to its adequate equipping would be a poor return to the oversea British territories that have contributed so very large a part of the cost.