ABSTRACT
East of Suez is, in Britain, an emotive phrase. It evokes the Kiplingesque era of garrisons in India and Burma and symbolises defence debates precipitated by financial pressures. As a discussion of British purposes in Asia, the debate would have been better timed in 1947 than twenty years later. Although Japan had been an ally in that war, the British Government considered it prudent to construct a naval base at Singapore in order to guard against the risk of a Japanese naval thrust at India and the Indian Ocean. While the maintenance of British forces there had originally stemmed from British responsibilities in India, defence tasks had in the meantime diversified far beyond the primary purpose of defence of India. Yet in a sense-and in a manner never intended or foreseen in Britain-Singapore served its original strategic purpose of preventing a Japanese attack on India.
