CAMPAIGN IN MALAYA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 5, 7 January 1942, Page 5

CAMPAIGN IN MALAYA

Successful Local Drives

\ LONDON, January 6. In Malaya, in spite of the withdrawal in the west on the Perak front and the loss of Euantan aerodrome on the east coast, a new message from Singapore speaks of satisfactory local offensive action against the Japanese It has also been stated that the effective fire-power of the enemy's artillery, armoured vehicles, mortars, and tommyguns is inferior to that of the British and that the defenders* anti-aircraft defences are meeting with increasing success. In recent raids in the Singapore area Japanese bombers have flown above cloud-level and dropped bombs at random. The commander of the Australian Imperial Force in Malaya stated: '' Sooner or later we must get reinforcements. In the meantime we shall hold, on." .

He said that the Australians under his command were fighting fit, fully trained in jungle war, and eager to get to grips with the enemy. They had not yet been in action.

The Australians had now been nearly a year in Malaya and any Japanese soldier infiltrating the Australian lines would do so at considerable personal peril.

' Referring to the treatment of Malays, Chinese, Indians, and other Asiatics in the occupied areas, a Singapore spokesman said that although the Japanese held themselves out-as the deliverers of the Asiatic peoples they were in-

dulgirig in orgies of looting and conduct similar to that which they had shown in China. .

The Japanese ill treatment of I'ttie whites in the Philippines was discussed today by the Secretary of State, Mr. Cordell Hull. He said that to act as it had been alleged that the Japanese were doing against men, women, and children was to descend to the lowest possible level of« animal savagery.

Although the. War Department in Washington says that the outlook in the Philippines is still gloomy, official quarters stress the value of General Mac Arthur's vigorous resistance in helping in the defence of Singapore and of the Dutch East Indies.