Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1943. NEW BURMA ROAD.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 6, 18 October 1943, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1943. NEW BURMA ROAD.

News frclm China is very scan l ty but sufficient is received to show that the Chinese are gallantly holding their own. The stand made by them is the more praiseworthy because of their isolation froth the Allies so far as supplies are concerned. At its best the Burma Road ivas inadequate and when the Japanese gained control of a section of it the position was desperate.. Relief coitld be obtained only by building another road from India, and the latest news is that a considerable distance has already been covered. The possibility of driving a transport way by what is probably the route now being followed, as an alternative to the Burma Road actually built, was considered by the Chinese Government in 1938. Investigation then made showed that passes of 11,000 or 12,000 feet would have to be, negotiated, and when Chinese territory was reached three rivers, the Yangtse, the Mekong and the Sahveen, with their high intervening ridges, would have to be crossed. Such a line* however, probably runs north qf the headwaters of the Chindwili and Irrawaddy Rivers, the inevitable supply routes for’ Japanese occupying forces. Therefore it,is likely to be beyond the area of effective interference, leaving the natural difficulties as the worst obstacles to be overcome. In addition to its possible role in the reconquest of Burma the road will restore to China a real link with the outside world. The effect on morale and on Allied prestige among the people of the Far East will be enormous. Supplies of petrol and other requirements for the American “bomb Tokio” airfields will also be stepped up to heights never reached before. Thus the highway now being cut by the northern Burma route can be much more than simply a transport line. It can be a symbol of .an Allied conquest of natural difficulties, and of the determination to let nothing stand in the Way of attack on the enemy from every available angle. ._