xiii 289 pages. Indexed, annotated, bibliography, illustrated. The jacket is lightly damaged at the edge where it is peeling, else clean, unmarked and solid. " An important work on a controversial issue in British history.If you are looking for a book on the Malaya campaign in WW2, this is not the book. What this book tells is the story of how the Singapore Naval Base came into being. We see the questions of where to build the base, the proposed plan for the base and what was actually built, how the base became a political football, the great battle of how the base was to be defended, and more. This book will help the person reading about the Malaya campaign grasp why the Singapore Naval Base existed in the first place, and is a first rate resource in the study of the Royal Navy between the World Wars as well as the Malaya campaign of World War 2." (George W Prescott - web review) William David McIntyre OBE is a New Zealand historian. He was a professor in history at the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, before retiring from that position in 1997.