CO885-11 — Page 376

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.882/11

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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18. The concluding sentence of paragraph 7 of the despatch expresses the conviction that every Colony will feel it its duty to give every possible assistance to the Mother Country. This Colony has never been backward in rendering such assistance and we instance the recent gift of the land for the Naval Base. As a further step in the same direction, we are ready to consider favourably a proposal that the Colony should bear a small proportion of the cost of the naval defence of the Empire which we suggest might be apportioned throughout the Empire. We have not the information necessary to formu- late any proposal on these lines and must await the answer to this suggestion, which is, of course, made only subject to the principles laid down in this letter, particularly in paragraphs 12 and 15, being accepted.

19. In conclusion we may add that the views we have expressed are our personal ones, and while we are of opinion that, in general, they would be endorsed by the public of the Straits Settlements we feel that it is only right that the people whom we represent should be given an opportunity of ventilating their opinion. To give effect to this we request that Government publish the despatch and this letter, or sanction our doing so, at the earliest possible date.

20. In view of the imminence of Your Excellency's departure and the desirability of this letter being in your hands before sailing the individual signatures have been omitted, but the signatory has the authority of the Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council to sign on their behalf.

J. BAGNALL,

J. M. MILNE,

We have, &c.,

J. BAGNALL.

On behalf of the undernoted Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council.

TAN CHENG LOCK,

MOHAMED UNUS BIN ABDULLAH,

H. E. NIXON,

QUAH BENG KEE,

H.E. Sir Hugh Clifford, M.C.S., G.C.M.G., G.B.E..

C. 52056/28 [No. 25].

(Confidential.)

SIR,

Singapore.

No. 3.

P. SIMPSON,

N. L. CLARKE,

G. C. CLARKE,

SZE JIN CHAN,

A. P. ROBINSON,

STRAITS SETTLEMENTS.

THE GOVERNOR

to

F. A. PLEDGER.

THE SECRETARY OF STATE.

(Received 13th August, 1928.)

Government House, Singapore, 19th July, 1928. With reference to my open Straits Settlements despatch No. 514 of even date* forwarding a memorandum signed by all the Unofficial Members of the Legislative Council relating to the proposals put forward in your despatch No. 185 of 30th April last on the subject of the Military Contribution payable under Ordinance 64 for the defence of the Colony, I have the honour to address you on this important matter.

2. The memorandum of the Unofficial Members is a moderately worded document, but it is necessary, I think, to realise that local opinion on this question, as represented by them, is exceedingly strong, and that in objecting to the Colony being made liable

† No. 1.

* No. 2.

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for a contribution toward the defence of the Naval Base, in excess of the cost of its normal defence and garrisoning, up to the full amount of 20 per cent. of its assessable revenue, they have behind them the unanimous support of all thinking sections of the local popula- tion among all races. It is a consciousness of these facts that has led me to delay formally placing the proposals contained in your despatch under reply before the Legislative Council, as instructed in the concluding paragraph of that despatch, until you have been put into possession of a full staternent of the case as it is viewed in the Straits Settlements.

3. In paragraph 2 of your despatch under reply it is mentioned that the War Office estimates of the military expenditure for 1927 and 1928 include "capital expenditure on lands, works and armaments for the military defences of the new Base," the sums on this account amounting respectively to £142,000 and £262,000. Even though it may be possible to argue that the wording of Clause 5 of Ordinance 64 is such that it may be legally in order to charge the Colony (up to 20 per cent. of its assessable revenue) with practically any military expenditure, I submit that this inclusion should not have been made without previous reference to the Government of the Straits Settlements. It must, I think, be admitted that defence of the Base is something entirely different from the "defence of the Colony," as referred to in Clause 2 of the Ordinance; that the decision of His Majesty's Government to establish a Naval Base on Singapore Island necessitates the construction of works of a nature and a magnitude which would never have been deemed to be necessary, if the "defence of the Colony" had alone been in question; and that, by including the cost of the former in the War Office estimates and charging the Government of the Straits Settlements therefor, a liability which was certainly not contemplated ar intended when Ordinance 64 was forced through the Legislative Council in 1899 has been imposed upon the Colony without the Government of the latter being afforded an oppor- tunity to state a case or to formulate a protest. In taking this action the War Office may have been within the letter, but certainly was not acting in accordance with the spirit of Ordinance 64, which imposed liabilities of a kind that had nothing to do with the defence of an Imperial Naval Base; and I submit that the treatment which has been meted out to the Straits Settlements in this instance is of a kind which any self-respecting community within the Empire would feel that it had strong reason to resent.

4. It is now proposed to forgo this claim—vide paragraph 8 (i) of your despatch under reply-but while maintaining the military contribution for which the Colony is liable at 20 per cent. of its assessable revenue, to include in it the cost of the " military personnel " and "the cost of maintenance added to the garrison as the new defences are manned of the defences old and new.'

"

5. Viewed from the standpoint of this Government, this means that, in consideration for the Imperial Government consenting to forgo claims of a character for which it is contended that this Government is not morally liable under the existing Ordinance, and granting refunds on that account of moneys which it is submitted should not have been included in the War Office estimates without reference to the Colony, we are asked to assume additional liabilities of a sort that clearly was not contemplated when Ordinance 64 was passed, the effect of which will be in the course of the next few years permanently to bring the annual contribution on account of military expenditure up to the full figure What the Colony is being asked to do, of 20 per cent. of the Colony's assessable revenue. therefore, is not to pay as heretofore for the actual cost of the defence of the Colony, up to 20 per cent. of its assessable revenue, but to meet that liability plus a contribution to Imperial funds amounting to the difference between the actual disbursements considered necessary for its normal defence and the aforesaid 20 per cent. of its assessable revenue.

6. It is obvious, of course, that no such demand would ever have been advanced by the Imperial Government if the island of Singapore had not chanced to be selected by the latter as the site of the new Naval Base. In its selection for this purpose the Government of this Colony, so far as I am aware, had no voice; and it was certainly not realized at the time when it gave free grants of land to the Imperial Government for the construction of the Base that its implied consent to the decision to locate the Base at Singapore would impose upon it an obligation annually to contribute to its upkeep and to the cost of garrisoning it a sum materially in excess of the cost of the Colony's ordinary defence. This cost, it should be noted, though until the outbreak of the Great War it had for a long period exceeded 20 per cent. of the Colony's assessable revenue, from 1919-1914 onward, until work began upon the new Base a period of more than a decade-fell increasingly short of that percentage. From this it is to be inferred that the defence and garrisoning of the Colony, if no question had arisen of establishing a Naval Base on the island of Singapore, would have continued to be covered by a sum considerably less than

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