BIGGER MISTAKES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21068, 13 April 1943, Page 3

BIGGER MISTAKES

ATTITUDE TO JAPAN BRITAIN CRITICISED DELAY IN OFFENSIVE LONDON, April 11. “If necessary, the British Empire alone should be prepared to fight Japan,” declares the Sunday Dispatch in a long article, which adds: “Allies are fine things, but it is infinitely better to be able to do the job ourselves. We are repeating against Japan every mistake we made against Germany, with the vital difference that the mistakes are infinitely bigger and that, compared with the Japanese, the Germans are “ersatz.” After reviewing the Japanese conquests, behind which, the writer asserts, the Japanese homeland is securely tucked, the article continues: “The only possible bases for aerial attack on Japan are Russian, and when are we supposed to get those? The Chinese bases are too far back. Moreover, the Japanese are accustomed to tidal waves and earthquakes producing enormous deathrolls, and are most unlikely to be defeated by bombing. “And we have allowed Japan a year in which to transform Singapore, Hongkong and Corregidor into real fortresses. Japan will not remain quiescent while Herr Hitler is being defeated. If Japan invaded Australia and New Zealand, there would be a wild scramble to move equipment and population. But why sit quietly waiting for the spur? There are too many people who fail to see that Europe is a decadent and dying Continent and that salvation for us exists only in increasing the British Empire’s might and security against the threat which exists in the Pacific.”