The Lord Chancellor (Lord Hal dune) said it was not the Govern ment's case that the boundary line laid down by the Washington Conference had anything to do with the question.
Tt was a much greater question, question of what would be the effect. fon the general foreign policy of the Government of establishing a new base in the East, which would, when ther we wished it or not, be'a defence.
They could not have a naval base at Singapore, which was merely for defezice. It might give the greatest security to Australia and New Zealand, but it would be at a cost They could not reconcile such position with the foreign policy which the Government was endeavouring to pursue. They. might fail, but they were trying to. make the world rather better than it was, It was not a question of consulting half-a-dozen Powers about Singapore. The question might never zencrally, so as to make Singapore much less important than it seemed to be in the minds of people who left these things out of mind?
The Government's policy was one on which the Government meant to stand or fall.
The debate was concluded.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.