THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1942 AT INDIA'S EASTERN GATE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24275, 16 May 1942, Page 6

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, MAY 16, 1942 AT INDIA'S EASTERN GATE

The last rearguards of the Imperial forces in Burma were expected to cross the frontier into Assam yesterday. From to-day, therefore, India is directly threatened by the Japanese aggressor. Light enemy forces are reported to have already crossed the frontier into Bengal on the sea coast and into Assam, much further north. Although these advances need not yet be regarded seriously, they do show how the enemy has turned the tables on the Allies in South-east Asia. Burma in British hands was a bastion on India's eastern flank, the one lifeline between the arsenals of democracy and the manpower of China, and the natural base for Allied operations against the enemy in Siam and French Indo-China, and against his line of communication with Malaya. Now in enemy hands, Burma has become a base from which the Japanese can strike northwest at the riches of Bengal, north at the projected Assam Highway, intended to replace the Burma Road, and north-east at the core of Free China. At the moment the enemy is continuing his advance in all three directions, although it is doubtful whether he commands the force to push on against serious opposition. His present plan is probably to seize as advanced positions as he can reach in the Indian and Chinese frontier regions and try to hold them until he can reinforce the five worn divisions he has disposed in Burma. An invasion of India is not an enterprise that can be undertaken lightly with the fag-end of an army. Even though her defences have always been planned and organised to face an irruption from the northwest, while now the menace appears 1500 miles away in the north-east, India disposes of a large and efficient field army directed by the Empire's ablest commander, General Wavell. Thanks to the grim fight put up in Burma for five months by the small Imperial army, supported in the later stages by Chinese troops, General Wavell has been allowed time to reorientate his military dispositions in order to meet the menace from the east. The excellent railway system traversing India from the north-west to the north-east frontier from the Arabian Sea to the Bay of Bengal—would facilitate this re-grouping. No doubt strong forces have already been concentrated in front of the Ganges delta and the valley of the Brahmaputra, facing the few passes leading across the heavily bushed and mountainous Burmese frontier. These should be sufficient in themselves to deter the much-used Japanese divisions from a major attack until they can reinforce and bring up supplies. Thus General Wavell should be granted more time, an allowance further guaranteed by the imminence of the monsoon over all the lands east of the Bay of Bengal. The Japanese have just managed to forestall it in their advance. In Burma it is due to break in this third week of May, making all movement in Lower and Upper Burma difficult for months ahead, and well nigh impossible for large military forces. The same monsoonal deluge normally. arrives over Bengal by the beginning of June and in the Khasi district of Assam may have taken charge two months ago. There it creates the world's record rainfall, an average of 4?9in. a year, or about ten times that of Auckland. In one abnormal year, Khasi registered 905 in. or 25yd. sin. of rain. Such weather conditions are unimaginable to New Zealanders —even to those living in Otira Gorge. They offer a virtually impregnable defence of most of the Bengal-Assam frontier districts, an almost roadless region, until the monsoon lifts, normally in September. If the Japanese are intent on invading India immediately, their one practicable route would by sea, an expedition that would depend on their gaining assured naval command of the Bay of Bengal. Apart from this contingency, General Wavell should have several more months to prepare against invasion. Already he disposes of formidable forces. The Army has been steadily expanded from the peacetime establishment of 57,000 British and 157,000 Indian regulars to the present strength of over 1,000,006. Its numbers grow at the rate of over 50,000 a month recruited by voluntary enlistment, a significant hint that the "nonviolent, non-co-operative" policy of Congress politicians is not accepted by vast sections of the Indian people. Not manpower, but munitions, is General Wavell's chief concern in organising his defences, particularly aeroplanes, tanks and guns of the heavier calibres. These deficiencies are being made good, although the long convoys require time. The hope is that the monsoon and other factors will grant sufficient.