STRIKE AT JAPAN

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23482, 10 November 1941, Page 5

STRIKE AT JAPAN

Chinese Minister’s Advice

KNOCK-OUT BLOW BY ALLIES

(Received November 9, 10 p.m.) (U.P.A.) NEW YORK, November 9. The North American Newspaper Alliance correspondent in a dispatch from Chungking said that the Foreign Minister (Mr Quo Tai-chi), in an interview. said that to-day was the most critical moment in the Pacific and every moment counted. Therefore he invited America, Britain, China, and the Dutch East Indies immediately to pool their resources for a strategic knock-out blow against Japan. Mr Quo Tai-chi suggested a doublebarrelled programme to stop a desperate Japanese attempt against the Burma Road, first by the democracies sending operational squadrons of fighter and bomber aircraft to China, and second, by a combined push to drive the Japanese from Indo-China. The special correspondent of the Japanese newspaper “Nichi Nichi,” at Amoy, says that the basis of reports reaching Amoy is that 3000 United States troops, comprising anti-aircraft and engineer companies, had arrived at the Burma Road by the middle of October. They are at present engaged in protecting their own country’s aid to Chungking in the form of supplies which are piled up on the Burma Road. The correspondent says the American troops have replaced British forces which were transferred to the border of Burma and Malaya. The Japanese Army spokesman (Mr Kiyama) said at a press conference that the army hoped the Burma Road to China would be closed to traffic as a result of Mr Kurusu’s Washington mission, thus obviating military action against China’s last life-line. The army had refrained from attacking Yunnan, not only because of difficulties, but also because it hoped that supplies for Chungking would be halted by diplomatic action. Chinese forces were massing inside the province frontier, and the Japanese would counter-attack if they* moved. The Japanese Army was invincible. There was no place in east Asia it could not go to if necessary. The Chungking correspondent of the Associated Press of America states that authoritative sources in China are said to be disposed to accept any suggestion for placing the Burma Road entirely under United States direction and control. Military sources in Shanghai re-i vealed that 12,000 Japanese troops had disembarked at Haiphong on Wednesday. An invasion of Yunnan was unlikely, as it would require at least 100,000 troops. Dispatches from Hanoi report that the Japanese are speeding the construction of aerodromes, Japanese officers have asked the Hanoi authorities' for extensive hospital accommodation. Theories that the Japanese are only bluffing with their free hints about attacking the Burma Road are confirmed by dispatches from one of Reuter’s correspondents in the Far East, and the British Broadcasting Corporation's observer in Singapore. Reuter’s correspondent cables from Hanoi after an extensive tour along Indb-China’s frontier with China: “I am able to state categorically that there is absolutely no unusual Japanese action in the area of my visit.” The correspondent adds that it is reliably reported in Hanoi that the Chinese are keeping Central Government troops along the Indo-Chinese .frontier. The Japanese may be trying to tie up big Chinese forces in Yunnan while they strike elsewhere. The British Broadcasting Corporation’s observer says the Chinese have sent fresh divisions from the Chungking area to the frontier. The present Japanese garrison in Indo-China is not sufficient for the difflult attack on the Burma Road, although it is true the Japanese are accumulating ammunition and stores at Indo-Chinese ports. A message from New Delhi states that the Commander-in-Chief in India, General Sir Archibald Wavell, has returned. A military spokesman said: ‘‘We are prepared to face any emergency in the Far East. General Wavell’s visit to Burma and Malaya had a sobering effect on the situation there. The Indian and Far Eastern Commands are capable of nipping in the bud any Japanese mischief.” According to a Tokyo message the Domei News Agency’s Shanghai correspondent says that the British Consulate has advised Britons to evacuate Fukien and Kulangsu by November 11.