Town Rises from Jungle

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 401, 9 July 1928, Page 11

Town Rises from Jungle

PROTECTED SINGAPORE Outer Defences of Naval Base A PAR I from the actual work of building the Singapore it Naval Base, British engineers and Chinese labourers are toiling in the tropic heat, clearing the jungle and draining swamps, to make way for the new town of Changi, which ill house the military defenders of the eastern entrance to the Johore Straits,, on which the Base is situated, 12 miles from the sea.

At Changi, 14 miles from the town of Singapore, at the eastern extremity of the island, great works are in progress, for the construction of the new naval base in the Johore Strait necessitates measures for its protection against attack by water. The position of the naval base, lying 43 miles from the open sea in the narrow channel that separates the island of Singapore from the mainland of the Malay Peninsula, lends itself to defence, writes a special correspondent of “The Times.” The eastern entrance to these Straits is a channel between the hills of Singapore on the south and to the north an island adjoining the mainland, the only other access being from the west, where not only are the narrows practically closed by natural features to navigation, but the Straits are also blocked by the SingaporeJohore Causeway. To those whose experience of the laying out and building of towns has been gained in civilised lands the difficulties that impede such construction in these equatorial regions appear almost insuperable. Before a beginning can be made the whole country must be cleared, and the country at Changi consisted—and still largely consists—of impenetrable jungle, rubber plantation, and palm groves on the hillsides, and dense mangrove-covered, slimy-waterlogged, or tideflooded marshes wherever the coast is flat. But British determination and Chinese energy and labour —a happy combination—have already made much and very satisfactory headway, and the struggle against a too exuberant Nature is being won by man, armed with intelligence and the equally useful axe, pick and shovel. The forest is being felled, the mangrove swamps are disappearing under drainage and a covering of soil. Where only so short a time ago the crocodile wallowed, playing-fields are coming Into existence, and buildings are being erected. Tracks already pierce the jungle and on the future railway lines—for modern defence necessitates the rail—already can be heard the

rattle of the contractors’ trucks, filled with earth and stone. In deep cuttings bands of Chinese are at work, excavating along the lines of felled trees that mark the direction through the forest. Precautions for Health On the hill-sides the axe and the saw are never still and gangs of work I men leave a havoc of the tree-trunks I ! behind them as they progress on their | work of destruction. Now and again i one regrets the fate of some wonder* ful forest giant of great age, but the I jungle must go. with its impenetrable i uselessness and its fevers. This work of preparation for the construction of ; a town that will eventually harbour ! troops necessitates the utmost regard and care for the health of those who j will eventually inhabit it, and meanj while of those on the spot, from the British colonel in command and his j staff to the Chinese coolie who toils long hours in the damp shade of the | forest, or digs in the black slime of the mangrove swamps. Drainage works are in progress everywhere to carry off all surface water. At first the ditches are left open until the flow is assured, but in time the whole system will be underground. Even to-day, difficult as the task must be, every discoverable pool j and puddle is treated with petroleum. | Tidal waters, it has been found, offer j no danger; the mosquito does not : breed in them. ‘‘Panorama of Delight” The view from the hill extends from the northern shore of the Johore Straits to the Dutch islands away to the south —a panorama of delight. Here man has overcome Nature and the tangled, fetid, evil forest is tamed. ! It is a great work. Big things have i been already done, and bigger things will follow, but the progress is satisj factory and sufficient. Already the : whole town is mapped—the Chinese I shops, the Malay quarters, the bar- | racks, and the civil lines. Health and practicality have been considered . and attractiveness has not been forj gotten. The new town of Changi will ! serve its purpose well, to house the j garrison of artillerymen and engineers, and perhaps a battalion of in-

fantry, for the defence of the naval base away up the Johore Straits. It will not be a military town alone, and every measure is being taken for the installation of a civil population and the general welfare and prosperity of all the inhabitants. But there is not only a town to build in the district, there are also the more serious constructions of defence. On my way to Changi I was shown hills that command all approach to the Straits bysea. and the emplacements, not yet begun, where the guns will lie concealed among the trees and palm-

groves—guns, great and small —invisible from the water and from the air, where even the tell-tale flash should be hidden by the vegetation—and it is the unanimous opinion of the experts of Singapore that there is nothing that will tend more to ensure peace in the Far -East than the construction of the naval base and its defences.