THE SINGAPORE BASE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 18898, 26 June 1923, Page 7

THE SINGAPORE BASE

ADMIRAL’S CONDEMNATION. VIEW OF SIR PERCY SOOTT. LONDON, June 8. Admiral Sir Percy Scott, in a letter to the Evening Standard, declares that the only answer to his oft-repeated question: “What use is a battleship?” has been supplied by a midshipman, who replied: “No damned use at all!” No one, he added) could advance a reason for building docks at Singapore, whore from £9,000,000 to ’£11,000,000 of the taxpayers’ money was being sunk in foreign labour on.a proposition which was wholly unwarranted by any proved necessity. “What,” asks Sir Percy, “are the members of the House of Commons doing; in allowing . this wanton, wicked, and wilful waste? The fact is that they swallow any ccck-and-buD. yarn. It recalsl my own experience at the Admiralty. “When a member of the House of Commons interrogated the Minister regarding the Fleet’s shocking shooting, and demanded the reason why ships had fired 150 rounds and missed the target, I was stumped for an answer. I called up a lieutenant who was clever at inventing answers suitable for politicians. He replied that, although they missed the target, it did not follow that the gunnery was bad. “This ridiculous answer satisfied the Commons. I had hoped that members were becoming less gullible, but they appeared to be worse, and actually accepted the First Lord’s statement that submarines had never aneoted the free movement of the Fleet. “The question is,” concluded Sir Percy, “in time of war, how will capital ships get to Singapore, and what will they do if they get there?”