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| Interpretative
Centre Level 1 - Gallery 1 |
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| Defence Of Malaya |
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| Malaya,
the 'Dollar Arsenal' Rich in natural resources, Malaya, the 'Dollar Arsenal' of the British Empire, was producing half the world's supply of tin and rubber at the turn of the 20th Century. By the 1930s, with much of the swamps and jungles cleared to dredge for tin and rubber planting, Malaya had developed a well-integrated system of roads, railways and ports. During this period, Japan was invading China, and in need of vital commodities such as rubber and tin for its war effort. Japan therefore wanted Malaya, especially after the United States of America threatened to impose a strategic blockade. Japan's interest in Malaya was known, but British defence planners assumed that swamps and jungles would deter, if not obstruct, any overland invasion. This assumption was a grave mistake as it ignored the highly developed communications network that the British themselves had constructed throughout the peninsula. Major-General William Dobbie, General Officer Commanding Malaya (1935 - 1939), was the first to perceive the need to review British strategic defence plans for the Malay peninsula and the island of Singapore. The threat of Japan's invasion of Malaya and Singapore was finally seen as strong, if not inevitable. |
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| ".I can't help feeling that the security of the Fortress might be better served by having a stronger force in being outside it . I consequently feel that the answers to the possible threat (of Japanese landing and establishing an advanced base on the mainland) is primarily to be found in suitable mobile forces in being in the Malay Peninsula." |
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| Major-General Dobbie was fully convinced that to defend Singapore, Britain must first defend the whole of Malaya. |
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Copyright © 2002. National Archives of Singapore. Last updated January
2004. 1 Canning Rise Singapore 179868.