Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1942 ACTIVITY IN BURMA

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 22 December 1942, Page 4

Nelson Evening Mail TUESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1942 ACTIVITY IN BURMA

ALLIED commanders are becoming so adept at concealing their real intentions that caution must be exercised in interpreting the latest moves in Burma. The known facts are that the campaigning season is at hand, that General Wavell’s expressed central intention is the reconquest

of Burma as the back door to China that the Chinese have been preparinj to do their share, that there has beei a rising tempo in bombing activit: lately and that pow Wavell has sen troops across the western Burmesi border where they have made appre viable penetration without cominj into close conflict with the Japanese. This may be little more than largescale patrol work to test out Japanese strength and defences. It is unlikely, however, that our forces will go back again into India unless they are forced to. They may seek to feel their way forward gradually until the nature and extent of the opposition provide the Indian Command with information on which to judge whether the time is ripe for more ambitious moves. Burma is not a theatre where big mechanised armies can be employed. As last year’s illstarred campaign showed, specially trained men with high mobility and great endurance are required. Ground operations must be adequately supported from the air and the enterprise could not proceed very far without our regaining at least one of Burma’s chief supply ports. Wavell has been getting a proportipn of United Nations’ output of equipment and munitions. India is now at a stage where she can supply much of her own military needs and if both men and equipment do not stand ready for action any time now there would not be much prospect of our turning the tables on the Japanese before the lighting season closes down about next May. Any hopes that the Japanese had ■ of using Burma as a base for invasion of India seem to have receded into the background. What reinforcement they have been making there is believed to be mainly defensive, though there can be no certainty about this diagnosis of Japanese strategy. Calcutta has been raided by enemy planes for the first time yet it is not generally thought that j this is a prelude to an offensive against India. It would need very much more than that. If the Indian venture proves to be off that does not mean the Japanese will not fight as hard and as fanatically to hold Burma as they are doing on the j coastal strip in Papua. They know i that, if the Burma Road were to be \ re-opened, semi-throttled China 1 would get a new lease of life and the chance of liquidating her would have disappeared. Air transport and alternative land routes have done : something to relieve China’s isola- j tion but they have been only a very minor substitute for this artery. Within easy reach of her transport lines Japan has found in Burma war supplies of which she is making good use. There she has the world’s largest deposits of tungsten while mines in the Lashio region produce lead, zinc, nickel, copper and silver. Then there is captured oil and last, but not least, Burmese rice, which, in normal times, was one of the country’s chief exports. India is deprived of that rice now while Japan’s gain in war materials is United Nations’ loss which has handicapped

our war potential to the extent that we have had to cast round for alternative sources of supply or devise substitutes.

Japan might be content to let Burma continue as the western rim of her Asiatic conquests while she went ahead with consolidation ol' the vast and rich territory which has fallen to her since Pearl Harbour but she would fight very sternly before Burma could be taken from her. And it is probably true that the longer she is left to dig herself in there, the stronger she will become and the harder it will be to eject her. That is one sound reason for not delaying in the attempt to turn her out. China is waiting for that day and will co-operate to hasten its coming. At present the Chinese are engaged in stemming one of the periodic Japanese drives against the northern end of the Burma road in Yunnan. Allied bombers are plastering enemy-held airfields in western Burma. Our ground forcecs have been able to infiltrate to within 60 miles of the port of Akyab without serious opposition, which shows that part of the frontier at least is only lightly held. An offensive in this direction might make it possible to open the important Chindwin Valley without returning by the toilsome route through Assam

wile nee General Alexander’s agonising withdrawal was conducted earlier this year. Akyab could well be an initial Allied objective. Before the Japanese came communication between India and Burma was almost all by sea and any large-scale plans Wavell has must necessarily depend to a great extent on the übility of our naval and supply ships to move freely over at least the northern end of the Bay of Bengal.