CHINA'S PERILS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24303, 18 June 1942, Page 2

CHINA'S PERILS

J Bitter fighting is raging along the railway linking Kiangsi with the 5 coastal province of Chekiang. The [ Japanese seem to have succeeded in conquering so much of Chekiang ; that its danger as an air base for attacks on the cities of Japan is removed. They are not consent with this. Japanese forces converging from the west and the east aim at controlling the whole of the KiangsiChekiang railway and only 80 miles separates the two armies of the enemy. From Nanchang the Japanese will probably attempt to attack along the railway leading to Changsha, the important junction from which they have twice been heavily repulsed and which in Chinese hands denies the enemy the use of the trunk railway to Canton. The Chungking spokesman has stressed once again the urgency of his country's peril. China can delay the Japanese in Kiangsi, but seems unable to hold them. Tn their predicament the Chinese call for an immediate and large-scale offensive in the]

Pacific. At the same time they expect a break between Russia and Japan, the wish being father to the thought. Messages from Chungking | in the past have often stressed troop I movements in Manchukuo as the ; prelude to a Japanese attack on j Siberia. Such an attack would re- ' lieve the pressure on China. The Chinese have the goodwill of the Soviet, but since the beginning of the Russo-German war little practical assistance from her. This is not the fault of hard-pressed Russia, who has enough to do maintaining a large and effective army in Siberia. Of the Allies, only the United States can give substantial aid to China by taking the initiative in the Pacific. In spite of recent naval successes, America's preparations have scarcely reached the stage when a great offensive against Japan can be launched.