NOTES ON THE WAR

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 4, 5 July 1943, Page 5

NOTES ON THE WAR

FREE CHINA TODAY

BASE TO ATTACK JAPAN

Little change in the war situation is recorded in the weekend news. The Pacific Allies are consolidating: then newly-won footholds in the Solomons and New Guinea areas, -and in west crn Europe and the Mediterranean the Allied air offensive is rising to new peaks. The Russian front is still quiet.

The situation in the South-western Pacific is fully covered by the news and comment cabled. It is in the mam a battle of brains,'as one commentator declares. If the Japanese, accept the Allied challenge, decisive results in the transfer of sea-power and airpower over a vita] »rea in the outworks of the Japanese defence system may be expected. Otherwise, progress may be slow, as it was with Guadalcanal and in New Guinea last year. Even •if operations in this battle area succeed "according toplan." it is still a long, long way to Tokio. CJiina and Eastern Siberia are obviously much better bases, as often stated, from, which to attack Japan, and there are two items in the news today bearing on this point. One is the tribute of an Australian back from China after instructional service with Chinese guerrilla forces. He says: "The Chinese' are great fighting people.' With equipment and air support they will beat the Japanese." The other item is. the report from Chungking that "the Japanese are rushing large numbers of troops towards MSnchukuo and are obviously preparing to attack Siberia." Too much importance need not be attached to this report. Similar rumours have emanated from Chungking on previous occasions, particularly last year. But it is possible -that the Japanese, whose mentality is Oriental, may be striking a double blow, one for themselyes and the other to relieve the Axis in Europe. The Japanese Plan. It is now just over six years since Japan invaded China proper, as it is nearly twice that time since they began their operations which led to the complete occupation of Manchuria (Manchukuo). It seems pretty, clear now that all subsequent operations after 1931 were parts of a serial plan designed to create the very Japanese empire we see today. Manchuria was occupied strategically to safeguard the vulnei-able western flank of Japan from attack, presumably by Russia. China itself was the next stage to guard the same flank for further advances south, the main part of the plan. That ( this was the purpose is apparent from the fact that no serious attempt was ever made by the Japanese to conquer the whole of China. Only sufficient, area was taken to cover the flank. To the Japanese the war in China was merely incidental—"the Chinese incident" —to the grandiose conquests we now see. Today, compared with China as a whole, including Mongolia. Sinkiang and Tibet, but excluding Manchuria, the Japanese occupy only 440,000 square miles, or 11 per cent. On the other hand, this area includes the richest and most populous . parts of China,' thdrr^rthern plains, the Yangtze Valley, and small areas round the main seaport* of Southern China. The population under Japanese control is estimated at 175.000,000, between a third and a half of the total population, of China. Under Japan also are the principal railways and waterways, notably the Yangtze River up to Ichang, the navigable section. But parts of the main railways, such as the Peking-Hankow-Canton tr&nk line are still in Free China. It is to secure this line all; the way that most of recent Japanese offensives have been aimed. China's Weakness. The great weakness .of Free China is the lack of industries capable of. manufactari'ng-modern arms^ such as aeroplanes, tanks, heavy artillery, and a • •■gfmltjtttde - ■jdf-■ other- -weapons with wfjdh. #dpaifhas' £qmp'p'e,a; ; jTer forces. ■Hie..?-first- two^ years , ; of .-the war m. China deprived.the not only of their own arsenals, but of all the chief centres of industrialisation, Tientsin, Canton, Hankow, Shanghai, and the other Treaty Ports, where the Westerners had established industries. Free China, the area left, was more than 92 per cent, purely agricultural. Its only cities of note were Chungking, Kunming, Kweilin, and Chengtu, none of them industrial centres. The. Soviet Union would, have been in. X better condition .to resist the invader than Free"CHina: was if:.the whole og European Russia -had been lost. But if Russia shifted many, of her war. industries eastward beyond the reach of the invaders/ the Tree Chinese, with far fewer facilities of transport,, salvaged.enough of their industries to establish, new ones in Central Western.; China with its capital of Chungking. Where possible, machinery was carried by boats or by rail, but these did not go far, and most had to be borne on the backs of man and beast over thousands of .miles. With the machinery went 30,000,000 people from the coastal plains into the mountains bf Szechwan and Yunnan, there to begin • again to fprge the weapons for China's war of liberation. The difficulties were supreme and the results almost miraculous in the face of such odds. But it would be idle to pretend that Free China is yet armed and equipped to fight the offensive war necessary to oust the invader and carry the attack to the doors of Japan itself. This is admittedly the greatest problem of the Allies today in the war against the Japanese—to help the Chinese to do what they are humanly, if not mechanically yet, willing, and- able to.. do against the common enemy. Something- has been achieved, especially in the air, but much more remains to be done.