The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY. DECEMBER 9, 1941. THE HARVEST OF TREACHERY

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 291, 9 December 1941, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. TUESDAY. DECEMBER 9, 1941. THE HARVEST OF TREACHERY

ADVANTAGES accrue to the Power which carefully prepares a treacherous attack, and it is clear that Japan has reaped some of them and may soon reap more. It was not unexpected that in the event of war in the Pacific the American outposts of Guam, Wake and Midway would be "moppeci up" very quickly, and it seems that that is happening, or has already nappened. it was also expected that there would be attacks on the Philippines group, which presents exceedingly hard problems in defence. The unexpected action—and the considerable measure of its success is the measure of its unexpectedness—was the attack on Hawaii, and Pearl Harbour in particular. Even allowing for the advantages which accrue to treachery, it should be admitted that the Japanese N'avv and its air arm, by the conception and the execution of this plan, showed that it is a first-class fighting force. It calculated the risks, it took those risks, and it succeeded in striking a sharp blow at United States sea power. It would be foolish to minimise the importance of this achievement from the naval point of view. But it has had, and will have, other consequences, which are not to Japan's advantage. That it would bring the United States into the war was of course certain; that was one of the calculated risks. What matters greatly is that the United States, at the moment of finding itself at war, realises also that it will not be a "comfortable" war. The conflict has begun with an American reverse, involving considerable loss of life and a stinging blow to national pride. That blow will be returned, and it will be quicker and harder than it v/ould have been had the reverse been milder, less spectacular and long delayed. Nothing, except an attack on the American mainland, could have been better designed to raise the American fighting spirit than a successful attack on Pearl Harbour. But Japan has declared war on Britain as well as the United States, and attacked British territory as well as American. The siege of Hongkong, also expected in the event of war with Japan, appears to have begun. According io Mr. Curtin, attacks have been made also on New Guinea and on Ocean Island. Most important of all, an air attack has been made on Singapore, and troops have been landed on the coast of north Malaya. There is little information concerning the scale of this landing, but there is unfortunately no doubt that after what appears to have been a "token" resistance the forces of Thailand have ceased fighting and yielded control of southern Thailand—that is, of the northern part of the long Malayan peninsula—to Japan. Here, possibly, can be discerned the pattern of the Japanese purpose. Singapore, the importance of which needs no emphasis, is too strongly fortified for naval attack to be easily practicable, but it can be attacked by land, from Thailand. Such a campaign would not be easy, for Malaya is about 500 miles long from the Thai frontier to Singapore, and it is difficult country to fight in. It may be that this operation i» a mask for yet another, to the nature of which the instant declaration of war by the Netherlands East Indies Government provides the clue. What is certain is that a great and possibly a prolonged struggle has begun for the control of the Pacific, a struggle in which the fate of every British country in the Pacific is involved. For the Japanese it is now "all or nothing," and they will fight, as indeed they have begun to fight, with that knowledge and in that spirit. They are fighting to win the mastery of East Asia, which Includes south-east Asia. Their expansion is blocked by British and American sea power, including the Singapore base of that power. Without that sea power established and secure, the British Dominions and colonies in the Pacific cannot live their own lives as they wish. With our future thus at stake, we In New Zealand must neglect or omit to do nothing that may in any way strengthen the great forces whleh are now rallying to resist the Japanese challenge.