NEW MOVES IN ASIA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXI, Issue 93, 21 April 1941, Page 6

NEW MOVES IN ASIA

The Persian Gulf and Irak are immensely important in Asiatic strategy. "Sea power inevitably answers any Berlin-Bagdad threat by landing-preventive forces at ihe great Irak port Basra, which is Bagdad's and Irak's window on the Persian Gulf. To repel any overland approach from Europe to the Gulf a strong naval nalion will, as a matter of course, establish and support a land army in this country of the Euphrates and the Tigris, now called Irak, but known by many names throughout the centuries. Neighbour to Irak is Iran (Persia) and the two States can be fitted into this defensive conception. In the last war, Britain defended—with some re-! verses, but in the end successfully— the Gulf and the Euphrates-Tigris region against the Turks. But in any new Asiatic war, it is hoped, the Turks will be allied to us and will find in Irak the help and not the hostility of sea power. The landing of Imperial forces at Basra, reported today, is in accord with the British-Irak treaty of alliance. It follows a coup d'etat which erected a new Government in Irak; and today's messages slate that the new Irakian Government is acting according to both the spirit and the letter of the treaty. If so, this strongly-armed co-operation in an im[porlant strategic region will interest the Turks, just as the retirement in Greece interests them. The Turks are realists, and watch closely both their front door in Europe and their back door in Asia. The strategy behind British military action in the Persian Gulf region is, indeed, obvious. The only limiting factor is the degree to which the British Empire's total national strength— land, air, sea —can be equal to the dispersal involved by maintaining land forces in Greece, in pails of North Africa, and in Asia. This factor, in its naval and military aspects, is referred to in another article.

Another new move in Asia—but a matter so far of report only—is the transport from Eastern Asia westward of Russian troops. Reports slate lliat these Russian troops arc moving Avest "in order to meet the neAV European situation." It is assumed that the reported transfer of troops is a result of the TokioMoscoav neutrality treaty.