CHINA ANXIOUS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 39, 16 February 1943, Page 3

CHINA ANXIOUS

"NAZIS FIRST" POLICY

Supreme War Council For Pacific Advocated

N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright Rec. 10.30. CHUNGKING, Feb. 15. The Chinese Press continues to reflect anxiety over, the Casablanca conference decision to defeat the Nazis first and then concentrate against the Japanese. The Central News, commenting on President Roosevelt's speech, says: "We can no longer conceal the vexation we have, felt as we have watched the shortage of supplies to China, and the wanton waste of time in defeating the enemy in Asia. We can certainly endure more hardships and privations, but our Allies should not watch our hardships and see our defenceless cities bombed with their hands in their, pockets. 1 The Allies should immediately comfort the Chinese with action and arms." The Central News also advocated the appointment of a Supreme War Council in the Pacific to accelerate universal action. Attack On Tokyo Urged The Taksng Pao predicted that during the next nine months the Japanese might attack India, Russia, and West China, adding, "Only an attack on Tokyo can prevent these possibilities." The Chinese spokesman, commenting on President Roosevelt's speech, said, "If additional aid is not forthcoming, China's economic condition may deteriorate beyond recovery. Japan may be so strengthened that it will take years before she is defeated." The spokesman called on the Allies for more equipment and munitions, particularly planes with which to bomb Japanese industries. Mr. Franklin Ray, chief of the China section of lease-lend, has announced that more supplies under lease-lend have gone to China in the last month than for any month since the Japanese cut off the Burma Road, states a message from Washington. New airfields are being built in India and China. The number of ferry service and transport planes has greatly increased and the construction is being rushed of new roads to China to speed up the transportation of materials landed by air. The Japanese captured , the majority of the lease-lend supplies landed at Rangoon, but m<?re fighting equipment is being delivered to China by air than ever traversed the Burma Road. China will benefit immediately from the Far Eastern conferences, M which for months past the problem of how best to supply China by air until the Burma Road is reopened was given continuous study, says the Bombay correspondent of the Daily Mail.