The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-09-28
BY PETER EDISON
Editor; NEA Service

Singapore, Straits Settlements,
Sept. 20 - "Your American fleet,
said q British vice admiral In Aus
tralia. would tit nicely into Singa-
pore"
In that brief, facetious statement
Is wrapped neatly the whole story
Of Singapore naval base, British
Gibraltar Of the Far East on the
most important small island in the
world, excepting only Manhattan.
No one outside the British war
office knows exactly how many mill
lions Of pounds have been poured
into the defense of Singapore, an
island some 80 miles in circumfer-
ence, the adjacent waters and the
small islands which dot the harbor.
Concerning. all these defenses
there Is great deal of official hush
hush, and only the British know
how to put this on with maximum
effectiveness.
Commercial airliners coming into
the new Singapore airport, built on
made land at the waterfront, are
forced to fly in and out Of the city
on narrow channel. Fly q nom
military plane over any part Of the
western end of the island, an area
seven miles long and three miles
wide, and you get shot down. Go
cruising ainlessly about the harbor
In your yacht and patrol boats will
be after you, If you don't run into q
mine before the patrols can warn
you off.
FORMIDABLE
DEFENSES
The hills and island are sup.
posedly noneycombed with anti-air-
craft guns Of all sizes, and big cal
iber coast defense guns which can
outshoot and outrange anything
that might be brought against them.
There are airfields that would take
hundreds of planes. There are bar
racks and camps and forts that will
house thousands Of soldiers. There
are miles of barbed wire and first
and second line defense positions all
around the island, as anyone can
see by going out East Drive.
There are supposedly well-defined
lines of defense up across the Malay
peninsula, to thwart anyone who
might have the idea Of landing in,
say, Indo- China or Thailand, and
marching south on Singapore.
There Is navy yard with dry
dock and floating craving docks big
enough to take the largest ships
afloat or on paper. There are naval
shops to make every repair war
vessel might need.
There are supposed to be supplies
on hand to Withstand siege of
three years or more, and tactical
plan worked out to fight 1t out that
long, if necessary, to maintain Brit
aims hold on this 100-year- old free
port, fortress and outpost.
And so, by reputation, Singapore
Is synonymous with impregnability.
BUT WHERE'S
THE ARMY?
But to even the unframed eye,
there is a catch in the whole setup.
The number of troops seems
small, in comparison to the job that
may be ahead. Regiments of native
Malay troops are in training, and
there are units of Indians, Sikhs
and Burmese being whipped into
shape to handle machine guns and
anti-aircraft of all calibers. But
they don't make an army and they
haven't been seasoned under fire.
The numbkx II aircraft in Singa-
pore is not impressive. The air
fields are not as well defended as
the Dutch in the Indies.
There are few war vessels at the
base. There is little work in the
naval shops. The U. s. Navel base
| in Hawaii at Pearl Harbor Is 10
times as impressive.
The whole setup has the appear
ance of being an unused hive. On
short notice, it could probably be
filled with business-ike bees.
But it Is when you consider Sing
apore as an empty shell that the re-
mark of the British naval officer
becomes significant: "Your Amer
lean fleet would fit nicely into Sing
apore."
The British and the Dutch would
like that, you bet! They would no
doubt swap an awful lot If the U
S. would make Singapore an Amer
lean naval base-to defend the
nearby Philippines.
/ 1t is understandable and taken
for granted that the British need
all their ships and all the men they
can muster from any part Of the
Empire for war in Europe. And IL
Is good military and naval sense ia
hold the unthreatened outposts with
forces as small as possible. These
very facts, however, stress the point
that the British Empire is not now
Pacific power, and 1t cannot be
until Australia and New Zealand
can achieve their hoped-for roles as
Independent and se!f-sustaining
dominions within the Empire. Only
then will they have the rating OF
i <T1Sxr1d xSarxyAS- a.. N. a4Rs.