STRATEGIC CHAIN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24399, 10 September 1940, Page 7

STRATEGIC CHAIN

NAVAL AND AIR BASES AGREEMENT WELCOMED IMPORTANCE TO BRITAIN 'British Official Wireless) N (United Press Association) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright) RUGBY, Sept. 8. (Received Sept. 9, at .-7 p.m.) The strategic importance to defence and common interest afforded by the nava] and air bases leased by Britain to America is appreciated when it is realised how effective is the control which can be exercised by adequate naval and air forces stationed at places comprised in the agreement. Newfoundland, Bermuda, the Bahamas. Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad, Antigua and British Guiana form a complete strategic chain. /•'.,'

Newfoundland lies athwart the' Gulf of St. Lawrence and the river of the same name, which provides an outlet for the vast series of inland waters comprised by Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron, Michigan and Superior. With connecting canals and rivers they extend for nearly 500 miles into the interior of Canada in one line of continuous navigation inland. Michigan, with a length of 316 miles, lies wholly in the United States, otherwise the international boundary passes through the centres, and together they furnish for seven months in the year an inlet into the Atlantic from the heart of western United States and Canada. Bermuda consists of a cluster of about 100 small islands, some 16 of which are inhabited. The islands are about 580 miles from the nearest point on the American coast and 730 miles from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Bermuda has long been a British naval base lying on the flanks of important trade routes between Britain, Canada and the United States on one hand, and on the other ocean highways leading to the West Indies and the Panama canal. The strategic importance of the islands is clear.

Further south the Bahamas cover Florida channel and the Windward passage of the northern entrances of the Greater Antilles into the Gulf of Mexicb and the Caribbean. Naval and air bases in Cuba and San Domingo are already available to us, while Porto Rico and some smaller islands around it, guarding the 150mile "Mona passage" into the Caribbean, are American possessions. Jamaica, however, is some 200 miles south-west of the Windward passage between Haiti and Cuba, and is less than 600 miles from the Panama canal, being excellently situated- to assist in its seaward defence.

Antigua and St. Lucia, in the Lesser Antilles, and Trinidad cover the western approaches to the Panama canal, roughly 1300 miles away, together with " the Dutch islands of Curacao and Aruba, which are of importance because of their oil supplies obtained from Maraccaibo, in Venezuela. The chain of American defences will be completed by a naval and air base to be-established near Georgetown, in British Guiana, on the northern coast of South America, about 350 miles from Trinidad.

Well may it be said that the agrees ment is a matter for congratulation. It has been welcomed all over the British Empire as a substantial sign of the friendship and sympathetic interest which existsbetween the two great English-speaking democracies of the modern world.