Missing Pieces: - Royal Australian Navy

Facing The JaPanese OnslaughT 1941–42
Malaya and Singapore, the Philippines and the Netherlands East Indies as Japanesecontrolled
territory. 121
Japanese belligerency caused a great deal of reflection in Britain and Australia over
the following years. In a secret report written after he led the Australian Economic
Mission to Tokyo — among other Asian destinations — in 1934, John Latham made the
following comment:
As compared with other nations of the world it appeared to me that there
was an almost pathetic desire for recognition of Japan, in the full sense,
as a great nation, and for the appreciation of their national qualities,
and on the other hand a very resolute determination to promote the
interests of Japan in every sphere. 122
A cable from Australia House London to the Department of External Affairs of 30 June
1935 contained the following gloomy assessment:
From a naval point of view, 1936 is a particularly dangerous year as
Japan’s preparations will be far advanced, while the British Fleet will
be unready in important respects, and the first stage of the defences of
the essential Naval Base at Singapore will not be completed until the
end of that year or early in 1937. 123
In February 1934 the British Commander-in-Chief China, Admiral Dreyer, had convened
a conference of senior naval officers, which was attended by the Australian CNS. The
need for the meeting gained impetus from Japan’s announcement that it intended
to abrogate the Washington and London disarmament treaties when they expired
that year. Dreyer was one of the few British officers who acknowledged the capacity
and professional competence of the IJN. He foresaw the broad scope of the Japanese
southwards offensive and believed that to displace them would require ‘stupendous
combined operations’. 124 The conferees discussed the strengthening of Far East defences
and the development of plans to hold the Japanese in the period before the British
Main Fleet arrived. The Admiralty took little action in response to the call for a major
expansion of the naval, military and air forces in the area but, under Dreyer’s tutelage,
the senior officers recognised the essential role of air reconnaissance and air support
in naval operations in the theatre. 125
In February 1936 there was a military mutiny in Tokyo against the government’s
attempts to rein in military spending, and an attempt was made on the prime
minister’s life. In December of the same year, Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact
with Germany. Japan’s war in earnest with China broke out in July 1937. This led in
turn to confrontations with the other colonial powers and to a deterioration of relations
with the West. British Empire attention, however, including that of the Committee for
Imperial Defence, was increasingly focused on first the Abyssinian crisis of 1937 and
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