JAPANESE MOVE PREDICTED

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23942, 8 May 1943, Page 5

JAPANESE MOVE PREDICTED

CHINESE SPOKESMAN CHUNGKING. May 6. “There are strong indications that Japan is preparing to ipake fin important move,” declared a; Ghinese Army spokesman in Chungking. “Such possibilities as an attack against India or thrusts against Australia or Siberia cannot be ruled out, but it is believed that China is the most likely field of activity. The enemy would probably strive to destroy China’s resistance by mopping up operations in one area after another.”

The spokesman said that recent conferences of high ranking generals in Tokyo and Generol To jo’s visit to Manila almost certainly foreshadowed a new stroke.

General Tojo in a speech in Manila said that the Japanese were ready to strike the coup de grace at the enemy. He added: “The British and Americans will be so crushed that they will no longer be able to intervene in East Asia’s affairs."

The correspondent of the United Press of America in Chungking says that, according to reports from Nanking, additional Chinese puppet troops have been sent to the South Seas war zone to join the Japanese garrisons or for front line service, following the Na’nking Government’s declaration of war against Britain and America. It is the traditional Japanese policy to shift puppet troops from their home sectors to distant regions. The Japanese, however, are not sure of these troops and they hold their relatives as virtual hostages and arrest and execute them in cases of desertion.

A recent traveller from Shanghai said that the puppet troops would join Marshal Chiang Kai-shek at the first opportunity. The Japanese, realising this, gave the puppet soldiers only one rifle and a little ammunition to every five men. They used them mostly for labouring work in the Pacific islands.

PROMINENT U.S. PILOT KILLED

SERVICE IN BISMARCK SEA BATTLE

(Special Australian Corresp., N.Z.P.A.) CRec. 7.10 p.m.) SYDNEY, May 7. Another of the American front-rank pilots concerned in the development of the skip bombing technique exploited with such success against Japanese shipping in the south-west Pacific has been killed in an accidental crash. He was Major Edward Lamer, San Francisco, leader of a medium bomber unit which set a record for ship destruction in the Bismarck Sea Battle, when 12 direct hits were scored by 13 aircraft. Major Lamer himself sank a Japanese cruiser and transport in this action.

Captain Albert White, of Brisbane, an Australian Army intelligence officer attached to Major Lanier's squadron, was also killed in the crash.

The chief of the United States Army Air Corps (General H. H. Arnold) mentioned Major Lamer in a recent speech to American cadets when he said: “That man never knew the meaning of the word ‘quit’,’’ Major Lamer received the Silver Star for gallantry in the Buna campaign and had been recommended for the Distinguished Service Cross for his work in the Bismarck Sea. While most commanders go out on only half their squadron’s operational missions. Major Lamer went on every one. always leading his aeroplane into the attack. Captain White's work as Army liaison officer did not oblige him to accompany the squadron on its mission, but he usually went with them.