TOPICS OF THE DAY
No Reason For Panic ” “Suppose the worst came to the worst, what would be the British naval and military position?” asked the Sunday Times. “Singapore has become one of the best-defended and most fullyequipped naval ba.ses in the world. Hong Kong, which is our advanced base, is physically incapable of being made so impregnable. But it, too, has been greatly strengthened in recent years. Given, therefore, a naval force equal to crushing the Japanese navy, we have now the bases for it to act from. At present the British and French navies do not possess such a force on the spot; nor, probably, j-oukl they afford to send one there consistently with keeping supremacy in all the seas of Europe. But it does not follow that the prospect is inviting for the Japanese. In the first place, there is always the risk of American fleet-action; which we, of course, cannot count on, but equally Japan cannot rule out. And, secondly, there arc the very vulnerable lines of transports and supply ships supporting the Japanese mainland armies. For these reasons there is no necessity for us to resort to panic decisions of any kind.”
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WT19390818.2.44
Bibliographic details
Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20886, 18 August 1939, Page 6
Word Count
197TOPICS OF THE DAY Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20886, 18 August 1939, Page 6
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Waikato Times. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in