SINGAPORE BASE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20556, 6 May 1930, Page 11

SINGAPORE BASE.

NECESSITY TO EMPIRE. LONDON WRITER'S VIEWS. LONDON, May 4. Tho naval correspondent of the Morning Post says it is difficult to follow tho argument prevalent in Government quarters that there is no need to proceed steadily with tho Singapore base owing to tho capital ship holiday. Singapore was not being developed primarily as a battleship base, he says, but for cruisers, though tho schemo included a battleship graving dock. Tho ships Britain will bo ablo to maintain in tho Far East until 1940 at tho earliest must bo old, says tho correspondent. They will require more docking and repairing than newer ones. Therefore the capital ship holiday makes the Singapore base more necessary than ever. After March, 1931, £4,867,000 will bo required to complete tho base. Of that sum the Malay States and Now Zealand aro to find £1,290,000. Surely the £3,500.000 to be paid by Britain, spread over many years, is not too high an insurance seeing that the aggregate valuo of ships and cargoes on any single day on tho Eastern and Australian wators is more than £150,000,000. The Singapore base is a necessity that threatens nobody, adds the writer. Several of tho most powerful nations aro agreed that Britain's naval strength based on Singapore would bo tho greatest influence for maintaining peace in the Far East.