JAPAN PREPARING NEW MOVES

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 190, 8 May 1943, Page 5

JAPAN PREPARING NEW MOVES

Chinese Forecast

CHUNGKING, May 6. , “There arc strong indications that 1 Japan is preparing to make an important move,” declared the Chinese Army spokesman. “Such possibilities as an attack against India or a thrust 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 pointed out that recent conferences of high-ranking generals in Tokio, and General Tojo’s visit to Manila, almost certainly foreshadowed a new stroke.

General Tojo, the Japanese Premier, in a speech in Manila, where he is conducting a military inspection, said that the Japanese were ready to strike a coup de grace at the enemy, and added: “The British and Americans will be so crushed that they will no longer be able to intervene in affairs in Eust Asia.” The Chungking correspondent of the United Press Association says: "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 Nanking Government’s declaration of war against Britain and America. It is traditional Japanese policy to shift puppet troops from home sections to distant regions. The Japanese, however, are not sure of these troops. They hold relatives virtual hostages, and arrest and execute them in cases of desertion. A recent traveller from Shanghai said that puppet troops would join General Chiang Kai-shek at the first opportunity. The Japanese, realising this, give the puppet soldiers only one rifle and a little ammunition to every five men, and use them mostly for labouring work in the South-west Pacfic Islands.”