FAR EAST MUDDLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 46, 24 February 1942, Page 5

FAR EAST MUDDLE

BRITISH AND AMERICAN ERRORS

DEFENCES VERY WEAK

(By Telegraph—l'ress Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 9 a.m.) NEW YORK, Feb. 23.

The Press gives prominence to a broadcast by a National Broadcasting Corporation correspondent, Martin Agronsky, from Sydney, in which he criticised both United States and British4 ineptitude in the warfare in the southwest Pacific. Mr. Agronsky described an incident occurring near Java in which a United States warship* convoying American troopships, was unable to fight effectively against 32 attacking Japanese bombers because the warship's anti-aircraft ammunition was 11 years old and so defective that only 30 per cent.

of the shells were bursting,

He also related an incident in which R.A.F. pilots, ready and eager to enter battle, arrived at Singapore at the height of hostilities only to be told that they were not expected at Singapore, and would therefore have to go to Java in order to receive instructions from the British High Command.

Meanwhile the pilots' ship was being bombed at the Singapore docks.

Mr. Agronsky asserted that the Allied defences throughout the Far Eastern theatre were still- pitifully weak and warned that the fight for Java would be waged against tremendous odds, adding that the Allies would have a good chance of holding Java only if 1000 United States fighters and JSOO bombers arrived immediately.