1895-12-27 — Page 1

27080967

SUPPLEMENT

TO THE

"HONGKONG TELEGRAPH”

THE DEFENCES OF SINGAPORE.

WHY THEY SHOULD BE STRENGTHENED,

The following article on the dofonces of Singapore was contributed to the Straits Times on the 18th instaut:-

The adequney or inadequacy of the defence of such an` important Imperial Couling Station na Singapore is a matter · of vital consequence, not only to the inhabitants of the Colony but to the whole British Empire, and this strikes one especially at a time when ramours of war are heard on every side. Moreover, if these runours were to become A war" we should be taught but too late that the port is iundoquatoly defended, if such proved the caso; for forts, and guys, and torpedo boats are not made in ́n duy. Doubtless, the points which we propose to touch on have heen considered by those in authority; nevertheless, it may to good to call attention to them afresh. In the first place, it can searvoly be doubted that a torpedo fleet is a necessity in these waters to assist the-forts and forces already on the Island, and the surroundings of Singapore are extremely favourable naturally for torpedo defousivo warfare. Th large number of coral reefs and islands, forming so many intricate channels, would afford good and safe shelter for such bouts to be in wait for the enemy's ships, and would be of additional advantage in defending the town, us of a certainty the enemy woull be very chary of muqavring or even approaching at night or in foggy, rainy, or misty weather with the ever-possible liability of a torpedo being fired at them uniler cover of the darkness mid without warning. Secondly, Johoro Strait, loft open to navigation as it appears to be, without forts at either end, and no torpedo bouts to repel any attack from that quarter, simply invites the enemy to land at the back of the Island and light the question out on terra firma, always making their goal the coal sheds in order to destroy the coal, for, the coul once destroyed, an enemy would not desire to hold Singapore during war time even if they could. Moreover, the fact can be proved, although some may doubt it, that a fordo could be landed at many places,-in point of faet almost anywhere on the Island of Singapore, especially at high spring tides, and there are, donbtless, Mainy fishermanu who would be captured and hribed or frightened into piloting boats to the most favourable landing places. How could this be prevented at so many different points without more forts and torpedo honts ? It is doubtful, too, if the land forces could be moved swiftly enough mud with sufficient safety from one point to another. There may be little or no danger in clear weather and in daylight, but that is not the time when such-nir-attack- would he planned. The cemy would probably choose foggy misty weather and n dark night, when the existing forts would have great difficulty in finding the position of the attacking force, even if they could bring the guns to beur. Further, The enemy's man-of-war could and shelter among some of the surrounding islands and wait a favourable opportunity to maké a combined attack by sea and by a landing party. Agam, a heavy though not extensive fog lungs over the Town of Singapore very frequently in the morning, sometimes for ten or fourteen days consecutively. Those fogs descend sinddenly on the town directly the sun is above the horizon, they rarely extend much beyond the Harbour Limits, and are most frequent during the mon- soon changes and for, two months of the South-west -monsoon. Under cover of such a fog, and just outside its Jimir, the enemy's fleet could appronel in comparative safety close to the forts and shell, the Town, being in position to know their oxnct distance from the forts, while the defending forces could only judge of the enemy's position by sound, and would, therefore, have to fire at an invisible target. As such ting a combined laul and sea attuck.wonki be mate involving, as its greatest risk ro tha attacking party, a sudden lifting of the fog; but, if this happened, the enemy could retire at once to a safe distance. We do not writo às an expert, but there is something serious in, what has been said pointing, if true, to the urgent necessity that additional forts should be built.at various points on the Island, especially, at or near both entrances to the Johore Straits and particularly on Middie Island, and that torpedo bonte should be stationed at: Singaporo. Wo fix on Middle Island, which is well covered with coconut trees, because of its commanding position; for guns placed on that Island would be within range of vessels approaching the New Harbour by,Sinkle Chunnel or steaming past the Raffles Lighthouse by the South Chanñol, that is the main channel of the Straits,. to St. John's Island (the Buffalo Bock forcing a vessel using this channel to pass close to Middle Island), and from thence to the eastern entrance to the Now Harbour, Thoro ja niso always a further danger to be anticipated internally from the Native population in time of siege when food supplies might run short, namely, a riot which would be of very serious consequence, The Singapore Volunteer Artillery would probably be called upon in such a case, but coull they, or any of the Innd forces, be spared from defendiug the attack from without ?. It is surely doubtful.

OF THE 27TH DECEMBER, 1895.

COLONIAL AND-IMPERIAL AFFAIRS.-

Edinburgh, November 20th.

It is probable that the future historian of the British Empire, searching for the period when Imperial Feleration. consed to be a more pious opinion among statesmen, and began to take practical simpe,-will be able to discover dato and occasion in the appointment of Mr. Chamberlain to the Colonial Office. Already, without seeking to forco events, but simply by virtue of the attitudo he has taken up on Colonial and Imperial questions, and by saying the proper word and doing tho riglit thing in season, he has dono” much to ripen a somewhat backward germ towards flower and fruit Much will be expected from his administration of what is, in the Imperial sense, perhaps the most influential. office under the British Crown. But he has already done enough to carn the gratitude of the mother country and of tho Colonies. Instance in point will be found in his language and attitudo, at his tecting yesterday with `n doputation of the Agents-General of the Colonies, who camo to consult him on the practical means of laying down a submarino cable connecting Australia with the Pacific Const of our North Amerieni possessions. Mr. Chamberlain showed thorough appreciation of the vast importance of this undertaking, in” its_commercial, polifical, and financint aspects. But he also Ipoke Beyond and behind it, und percgived in this meeting of Colonial representatives, auxious to promote, by' common aetion and with the help and under the auspices of the Imperial authority, an object they bail all at heart, the nucleus of a Council of the Empiro," and the "evidence of solidarity and sympathy" as wide-renching as the bounds of Empire itself.. Emphasis is given to this view by the fact that, as at the Conférenco hold at Ottawe, spokesmen were proscut from the Sonth Afrient Colonies whigh, as Mr. Chamberlin points out, ́have no direct and immediate conceru with the project of a submarine cable connecting the British possessions on the opposite shores of the Pacific. It yiolds proof of the growth of the feeling that what touches the interests of one part of the Empire touches the whole-tliai by coming into closer and more sympathetic relations with the home entry the great self-governing Colouios of. Britain, draw nearer to each other, and without sacrificing one fota of their powers and privileges of developing themselves on their own lines and after their own minds, they share more largely in the property, the protection, and the glory signified by the British fing

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The question upon which the Colonial Secretary confer red with the Agents-General is one of high und growing importance. It was thrashed out in some measure at the Ottawa meeting, and the favourable disposition of the Imporint as well as of the Colonial Governments was then ascertained. Another step in advance may now be regarded ‚as muile." "It is no longer a question of whether the schemo of laying a Pacifie cable between the Canadian Dominion and the Australasiun Colonies will be enrried out, but one of ways and moans. Important problems of route, cost, and the like have first to be worked out. Thig arrangement proposed, and likely to be given effect to without delay, is that a Joint Commission, on which the Imperial and Colonial Governments will be represented, shall be ap- pointed to inquire and report on the whole subject. Canada And the Australinu Colonies are the countries that are most

immediately interested in the selene. A direct line of telegraphic communication will be nu important adjunct to the now channels,of trade and travel and political and social intercourse "that are being opened up between the Dominion nud Australia. The more discussion of the best means of promoting and improving trans-oceanic intercourse has already had significant effects on the commerce and even the politics of the two regions. Canadinos on one side aud Australian and New Zealand colonists on the other are finding out, not only how many articles of their produce and manufacture they can profitably exchnuge, but also the many sympathies, ideas, and institutions they love in common. They are clasping hands across the South Sen as members of the grant family of nations living under the British Crown. It is not foo much to say that these oxelunges of opinion and the coinpisted work which may be expected to follow upon them will have an important effect in lastening the formation of an Australasian Fale- ration on the lines of the Canadian Union, and of bringing nearer the day of Imperial Federation itself.

In a wider sense than this, however, the questipu of aging a cable between British Columbia and Australasin must rank as an Impérial one. In connection with the nmil routes across the Pacife, and as a continuation of the Canadian Pacific Railway, it is part and parcel of the great westward route of communication between the contro of tho 'Empire and ile extremities. The great and all-important featuro of that route is that from start to finish, excopt where it passes through the high sens, where we are well "nbla to defend it, it is over British ground. It will bo worked with British capital, and be under British protection. and control. It will be independent of foreigu tariffs, and restrictions. It is destined to become-ay, it is already one of the strongest and closest bonda of Empire. But the full strategic and political as well as commercial value of the Pacific highway has yet to be realiseil. It has not escaped the naties of those who watch the tides of trade and political notion that the day of the Pacific is at hamil.

The war between China and Japan; the critical condition of the former and the phenomenal development of the latter country'; the advnuce of Russian influence and enterprise h the shape of tho Sihorium" Railway; the search, bound some day to be rowanled, by the Great Northern Power for nu outlet in the opon Pacifie; the appearance and act eneronebnents of France on the borders of Siam and China these are some of the prominent new factors at work on the Asiatic side of the great basin of the world's waters. It is impossible for us to forget that the Pacific trade is 'still in the main the trade of Britain and its depend- 'encies; that thic, only civilised Power which has so far established a firm and solid footing, on the eastern and southern margin of this vast ocoan is Great Britain, in the shape, of its Australian Colonics; and that the dominating political interest of these Colonies is the freedom and safety. of the 'scus that surround them. It is necessary to look some way ahead; aul movements and projects on, the American side of the Pacific, where also we have a vast Frontage and stadding ground in the Canadian. Dominion, cannor Escape notice. Of these movements, that which has for its purpose the construction of the Maritime Canal across the Republic of Nicaragua is perhaps bost worthy of“. notice. Mr. A. C. Colquhoun, in his new book "The Key of the Parifie," ably aml elaborately draws attention to the - unlure and present position of tho, Nicaragua, projects, and the political and Commercial enusequences should the inter-oceanic Canal become a reality. There is no okag- geration in the statement that the opening of this new waterway would creato a revolution in thu time and in tho intertintional relations of the countries of the world, come parable only to that prodimod by the construction of the Suez Cauml. It would shorten the route to our Pacific possessions and markets. But it, would also, bring the United States into the field of Eastern competition, with advantages in the mutter of hearuess and readiness of access which it would go hard with us and, with my other rival to cope with. It would be to the Eastern and Southern States all and more that the Siberian Railway promises to be, to Russia in opening a short way for its commerce in the direction of Eastern Asin and Australasia; and against thene rivals we should have to bake what shift we can with our command of the open sea, and (for military pur poses) of the Canadian Pacific, and of our bases in India, Australia, and British Columbia,<-

The Nicaragua Chual is not get opened; it is not even fairly begun. No one who has examined the matter doubts that some day, perhaps not so many years hence, the Canal will be an accomplished fact. But in the meantime wo. have tinie, in this quarter, to breathe and look about us. Political obstacles, oven more than financial and engineer- ing difficulties-hugo us these are—have hitherto sfood in the way of the realisation of the schorus of opening a chanel to the Pacific by-way of the San Juan River and the great fish-water lake of Nicaragua. It is true, that the utter and disgraceful collapse of the Panninu scheme, while it left the ground clear for the Nicaraguan project, has

de capitalists chary of investing money in the entting of Contral American isthmuses; and that the Construction Company that surveyel the route and began operations at Greytown, at the Atlantic end, has come to n stop for lack of finida. The money, there is every reason to think, might be obtained for the carrying through of this grent work, were the problem fully sotilod of the control of the Cuil after its completion. This duty a large body of opinion in the States is resolved to nasiga to the Great Republic, The existing Nicaragua Maritimo Canal Company obtained. its concessions and began its work under a charter specially granted by the American Congress, a step for which the only provedent was that afforded by the Union Pacific Company. As matters now stand, a Bill has pussed the American Senate under which it is proposed that the Unite States Government shall take the quite miprecedenteil step of guaranteeing interest-and exordising control over a vast undertaking to be carried out on the soil and within the authority of an independent foreign State. The main object of the Bill, us explained by one of its chief advocates, Senator Morgan, is that the United States should be ablć, as stockholder and guarantor of the corporation, to exercise as full an influence and control over its property and manage- ment as is possible without a violation of the sovereignty of Nicaragua aid Costa Rica, and without an infruction of, or departure from, the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty," which inter- national engagement, it will be remembered, binds Great Britain and the Republic to the neutralisation of any canal entried by this ronto nerdss Contral Amorion. The spirit of the promoters of this guarantco scheme, and the dangers that British commerce might have to face were undivided American control established, may be judged from the aniqudment "introduced into it requiring that all material.and supplies used in the construction of the canal, where not grown in Costa Riés or Nicaragua, shall be purchased in, the United States. Either by private enterprise or under national or international auspices this doorway to the l'acific will ere loug be opened; and the resources of diplomacy should be found sufficient to secure its neutralisation, under the care of the great English-speaking nations.-The Scotsman,

· Pelate land Published by Cazaxer Dundas at No. 8, Pedder's Hill,, in the City of Victoria, Hongkong.