ASIA COMMAND BOUNDARIES STATED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 226, 23 September 1943, Page 5

ASIA COMMAND BOUNDARIES STATED

MOUNTBATTEWS AREA Excludes Australia, India And Persia N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 1.30 p.m. LONDON, Sept. 22. Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten's South-east Asia Command, says Reuters correspondent in the first disclosure of its boundaries, extends over French Indo-China, Siam, Malaya, Sumatra and Burma. It excludes India and Persia.

The sea region extends from the south-eastern coast of Sumatra, excluding the Sunda Straits, south along a line entirely excluding Australia; takes in the Bay of Bengal, the Indian Ocean, and the Arabia Sea to the western boundary, cutting the Persian coast 140 miles east of the Jask line, then just misses the tip of Arabia, runs south in Albatross Island, and from there south - east, avoiding Rodriguez Island and thus excluding the Madagascar, Reunion and the Mauritius Group.

The eastern boundary goes due south from Singapore to the north coast of Sumatra, from there round the east coast of Sumatra to a point 104 degrees east on the coast of Sumatra, then south to latitude 8 degrees south. From there it runs in a south-easterly direction towards Onslow, in West Australia, and when longitude 110 degrees has been reached, due south along that meridian. General Mac Arthur's Protest "It seems a pity that General. Mac Arthur has seen fit to comment' publicly on the rumours, recently circulated in the United States, regarding future strategy in the Pacific," says the Sydney Morning Herald in an editorial article, as quoted in a Sydney message. "However near to or far from the mark these rumours may ultimately prove to be," the paper says, "it cannot be overlooked that they emanate almost wholly from sources which have been consistently hostile to the present American Administration, critical in their attitude toward Mr. Churchill and assiduous in their efforts to use General Mac Arthur as a political weapon against both President Roosevelt and those directing the higher strategy of the war.

"Knowledge of this should surely have dictated greater caution on General Mac Arthur's part than to issue a statement, which, however well intended, gives countenance to rumours which are politically suspect and cannot fail to give the impression that he believes himself to be at odds with those whose duty it is to determine the broad strategy of the Pacific War. "To say this is not to challenge in any way the correctness of the viewpoint which General Mac Arthur expresses, but to proclaim it so bluntly and in such circumstances can hardly make for smooth cooperation with either the Governments or the combined Chiefs of Staff in whose hands lie the ultimate decisions on such questions." In the New York Times, Mr. F. H. Kluckhohn comments:—"ln spite of his guarded tone, General Mac Arthur went about as far as a commander on active service could in expressing disapproval of the course of events. The statement is considered the strongest General Mac Arthur has yet made."