Dominion Defence The Prime Minister of Australia's speech on defence
is important, but parts of it, such as his declaration that her Navy is her first line of defence, were obviously dictated by electoral considerations. (The Labour Party has declared that it puts its chief trust in the Air Force.) Mr. Lyons stated that the Australian Navy, enlarged and modernised in local dockyards, would in future be called upon not only to protect the Australian coasts but also to fit into a general scheme of Imperial defence, as in 1914. The costly new base at Singapore is obviously designed to accommodate, as soon as our rearmament programme is completed, a battle fleet which will safeguard Australia as well as Imperial communications ; there is no need to turn a blind eye to the fact that Japan is our only hypothetical enemy in the Pacific. Another important announcement was that the rapidly developing Australian munitions industry will be used to supplement British resources ; it is already serving other Dominions. Meanwhile in South Africa, which for naval defence depends entirely on the Royal Navy, problems of aerial defence have been discussed by the Union Defence Minister, Mr. Pirow, and Lt.-Col. Muirhead, the British Under-Secretary for Air ; commercial air lines, which operate a number of potential bombers and troop-carriers were also represented in the conversations. The defence of the whole vast area of British Africa, from the Great Lakes to the Cape, is obviously a single problem, which must be treated as a whole. The possibility that British shipping might revert to the Cape route in the event of a war affecting the Mediterranean makes preparatory and comprehensive defence measures essential.
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