SINGAPORE BASE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5224, 9 January 1928, Page 2

SINGAPORE BASE.

NEW ZEALAND’S CONTRIBUTION.

AN AMERICAN PAPER’S VIEW.

The New York Herald says in its editorial columns :—

The action of New Zealand in voting a million pounds towards the cost, of the british naval ba3e at Singapore should not be regarded as an unfriendly gesture directed at any Power or group of Powers in the Pacific. It meiely bears witness to the loyalty of, the New Zealanders to the: Empire. Often called more British than the British, they have long felt it thenduty to take a part, however, small, in the burden of Imperial defence. Since New Zealanders and Australians alike regard the base at Singapore as the rallying point of British interests in the Western Pacific, it is- natural and proper that they should prove their faith by works.

'Fortunately, the factors making for peace in the Pacific are so many that it is profitless to talk in terms of possible conflict. Even were there no other guarantees pfi peace, the dose community of interest between the Dominions and the United States has established a solidarity which not even the blasts of Chcago’s Mayor can shake. Lika Japan and China.* the Dominions the United States States want peace above all in. the Pacific—in order to finish the; tasks of nation-building and to develop commerce. Canada, New Zealand, and Australia are p'oneer countries acing problems similar to those of America. Peopled by kindred stocks and having similar forms of government, they view l the world more nearly eye to eye than do any ■other nations. Being, all of them, Pacific Powers, they are keenly concerned in the developments in that great ocean and on its shores.

The reason why New' Zealand and Australia are particularly interested in Singapore is that, as the nearest base for ref.ueling and repairing British ships, it is in a sense the police station of Britain in Eastern waters. So long as the Dominions form essential links in the Empire they cannot remain aloof from Elmpirq defence. Obviously, they are unable by themselves to carry the burden of sustaining large navies-. Hence it is only fitting that they should take their share in defraying the cost of the defensive forces of the Empire which, as the British delegates at the Genqva Conference aptly showed, are essential for the protection of Britain’s far-flung lines of commercs and communication.