NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 47, 25 February 1942, Page 4

NOTES ON THE WAR NEWS

MALAYA MYSTERY

MR. CHURCHILL ON SINGAPORE

Mr. Churchill, in his statement to the House of Commons, reported in today's news, added some important details to the existing information on the Malayan campaign which ended in the fall of Singapore, but ventured no explanation of .line causes of the failure there, and said he would not attempt to pass any judgment. Some of the difficulties before the Allies were illustrated both by the British Prime Minister and by President Roosevelt in his fireside talk. "

The points made % by Mr. Churchill were: (1) Before he left for America (in the third week in December), we had "reinforced Singapore by over 40,000 men, together with equipment drawn from other areas where it was sorely needed and even actively engaged"; (2) nine convoys carried out the reinforcement, which would have been regarded as a "splendid achievement if the defence had been successful"; (3) the Japanese claimed to have taken 73,000 prisoners in Singapore, but, said Mr. Churchill, "larger numbers than that were in the fortress1 at the time of attack." (4) There were 26 Japanese divisions in* the Abda area.

thus the British forces in Singapore were large and the number which surrendered at the end exceeded those lost in France in the campaign which came to a finish at Dunkirk. T^his would, make Singapore one of the 'greatest, if not the greatest, military disasters in British history in point of the size of the ■ force and its equipment. Mr. Churchill declined to pass judgment or to apportion blame, and no commentator can fairly go further with the limited information available, except perhaps to express surprise and regret that this great force, the loss of which is far more serious than the loss of Singapore itself and Malaya, could not have been evacuated across the narrow waters of the Strait of Malacca to Sumatra, where it would have had a' far better chance of "resisting Japanese occupation and so of preserving Java from successful invasion. Once backs to the sea in Singapore Island, with Japanese superiority in the air and on the sea, evacuation was impossible, and surrender (or annihilation) inevitable. From the course of events it would appear that there was no general British plan for the defence of Malaya and Singapore against the type of attack that might fairly have been anticipated from the Japanese occupation of Indo-China and intrigues in Thailand. This is in remarkable contrast to the American plan in the Philippines. Here, the words of President Roosevelt's broadcast: "For forty years it had been our strategy, born of necessity, that in the event of a full-scale Japanese attack on the islands, we would fight a delaying action, attempting to retire slowly into the Batan Peninsula and Corregidor." Singapore fell in two months, but General Mac Arthur holds on at Batan!

The news from Burma indicates a further British withdrawal ,to the Sittang River, the "last ditch," before Rangoon. Whatever was the actual result of the naval and air Battle of Bali, the Japanese have a foothold in the island, and, unless driven out or destroyed there, menace Java at cjose quarters. The Russians have renewed their offensive, after the Red Army celebrations, with considerable success and theirs remains the bright spot in the picture. Rommel is believed to be preparing for another attack in Libya, where, it is hoped, our forces have not been materially weakened to send help to the Far East.

The depredations of U-boats in the Atlantic were mentioned by Mr. Churchill as becoming serious again. There is evidently a hard time ahead of the Allies.