War In The Pacific

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 96, 18 January 1938, Page 11

War In The Pacific

Sir, —In view of the fairly general alarm of the Australian and New Zealand people that Japan might invade their countries; I think it high time that the impossibility of such was pointed out to them. The Japanese need their entire air force to protect their own cities against the Russian air force at Vladivostock, so could spare none for action against Australia or New Zealand, thus making our defence purely a matter of command at sea. An island cannot be invaded without command of the sea, a command now exercised by navies with air forces as auxiliaries. .

The United States, France and Russia well know that their .turn would come next if the British Empire fell before Germany, Italy and Japan, and so would not wait upon the order of their calling, but for their own self-defence, would ail come together on the side of Britain. For the same reason many other minor powers would also support us, viz., Holland, menaced by Germany in Europe and Japan in the East Indies, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey, menaced by Italy in the Mediterranean, Portugal, threatened in Africa by Italy and Germany, and in the East Indies by Japan. The alliance of Turkey opens the Mediterranean to the Russian Blade Sea fleet. What a hope on land, sea or air have Germany, Italy and Japan against Britain, the United States, France, Russia, Holland, Portugal, Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey? In reviewing the strength of the two opposing groups, we find that the British and American navies are each superior to the Japanese navy in the ratio of 10 to 7, while the French, Yugoslav, Greek and Turkish navies are much stronger than the Italian navy, and the Russian, Dutch, Danish and Polish navies are as strong as the German, navy. The Russian air force, the strongest in the world, the French, Yugoslav, Greek, and Turkish air forces are far stronger than the Italian air force, to say nothing of the British and American aii - forces. Thu Russian army, with 6000 tanks, the greatest number for any army in the world,’ the French, Polish, Czech and Yugoslav armies, are far more powerful than the Japanese, German and Italian armies, while against a possible combination of Austrian, Hungarian, and Bulgar armies, tiie Rumanian, Greek and Turkish armies would present too powerful a combination. In any future war with Germany, Italy and Japan, they would be completely defeated on land, sea and air by us and our allies. Our European allies, possessing stronger navies than Italy and Germany, it would not require more than a quarter of the British Navy to support them, at the most, thus enabling us to concentrate three-fourths of our navy in the Pacific, a force stronger than the Japanese navy, and ample protection against invasion of Australia and Naw Zealand. France, Russia, and other nations in Europe being on our side, would easily enable us to do tins. Then there is the whole American navy that could be concentrated in the Pacific, where, in conjunction with the British naval forces there, it would form an Anglo-American naval combination superior to the Japanese navy in the ratio of 17j to 7. This could be effected, whatever happens in Europe. In any war in the near future with the Fascist powers, instead of a Japanese invasion of Australia and New Zealand ,there would occur a destruction of the Japanese navy by the British and American navies, and a wiping out of the air force of Japan by the entire American and the Russian (Vladivostock) air forces; and. if need be, invasion and conquest of Japan itself by American and Russian armies.

That is what would happen in a war with the “have-not” powers in the near future. What would happen in a war in tiie distant future when the political situation might be totally different from what it is now, through Japan making the northern Chinese, or possibly all the Chinese, a great military and naval power allied witli Japan, won over to her by

pan-Asiatic propaganda, or through the German and Italian Fascists, or the negroes gaining the upper hand in the United States— contingencies that may some day arise- —is a different matter. Both such above consummations may be effected in the course of time, particularly an alliance of the northern Chinese and Japanese; but as yet they are so far off that' we are quite secure from attack for at least a decade and probably for a quarter of a century.—l am, etc.. K. COIvDi. Lower Hutt, January 14.