Indian Troops for Singapore
The reinforcement of Singapore by troops from India may direct some attention to our defence problem in the Far East. Singapore itself, if properly garrisoned, is probably impreg- nable; it is an absolutely first-class battleship-base, with nothing lacking to it save battleships. Given such a force stationed there, it would be hardly possible, while it remained in being, for the Japanese Navy and Army to operate against either Australia or the Dutch East Indies or India and Burma. They might, however, without very much delay or difficulty capture Hong-kong, and so deprive us of any advanced base for counter-operations against them. If sufficient ships were sent, and sent in time, Hong-kong might be saved, but scarcely otherwise. Military protection is also required for Malaya, our richest colony, and some is being sent. For the military side of all these needs we could safely draw more on the goodwill of India. She cannot spare money, nor very large numbers of existing troops ; but she could be a vast reservoir of fighting man-power for us to draw on. The Indian army could easily be raised to ten times its present strength by voluntary recruitment.
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