SINGAPORE BASE POLICY

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 826, 21 November 1929, Page 9

SINGAPORE BASE POLICY

MINISTERS INUNDATED WITH QUESTIONS RIGHTS OF DOMINIONS Tweed 11.10 a.m. RUGBY. Wed. The Prime Minister was asked in the House of Commons to give an assurance that no change of policy as to the completion and establishment of tho Singapore Base would be made without the consent of the Dominion and Colonial Governments concerned. Mr. MacDonald replied that it was quite obvious, in any rearrangement of the building programme, regarding which no final decision had yet been taken, that the subscribing communities must be consulted, not merely by way of being informed but in such a way that, an agreement would be come to. Mr. A. V. Alexander. First Uord of the Admiralty, informed a questioner that the total estimated expenditure on the Singapore Base was £8,700,000, including the cost of the floating dock. The total expenditure to date was €2,0:13,000. After allowing for further Dominion and Colonial contributions, the ultimate net charge to the Navy vote for the present scheme was £6,290.000. Ministers were inundated with questions about tlie base. Captain R. Anthony Eden (Conservative) being dissatisfied with the failure to consult the contributing Dominions and Colonies before suspending the works, announced that he would raise the question at the earliest possible moment.