CHINA'S PROBLEM

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24538, 22 March 1943, Page 4

CHINA'S PROBLEM

A EMS AND TRANSPORT SHORTAGES OF FOOD J (Bccd. 7.30 p.m.) WASHINGTON, March 20 Japanese strategy is based on wearing down China's resistance by ( means of a strangling blockade, according to Chinese authorities in ( Washington, who say that already , their country's fighting ability is threatened by the twin dangers of • malnutrition and inflation. ( Disease is spreading among the Chinese armies, thev say. and almost the only healthy troops are those in the north, commanded by General Hu Tsttng-nan. who made them grow vegetables to supplement their meagre rations. Lack of nourishment with a lack of arms explains the relative passivity of the Chinese forces. Enemy Also Handicapped Transportation is China's great weakness. Until she regains mobility the food situation will remain critical, and listless and indecisive fighting can bo expected to continue. A report by Mr. Franklin Ray, in charge of American lend-lease aid to China, shows that tho recent lighting there can in no way he compared with that in Africa, or even in the Southern Pacific. With the Chinese lacking food, arms and mobility, they are unable to launch an offensive. The Japanese, in spite of vastly greater resources, are similarly handicapped by difficulties of terrain and long lines of communication. Virtually the only source ol modern equipment open to China is the air ferry from India. Mr. Ray states that < several months' supplies have piled up ! awaiting transportation. .What- is actually moved depends upon tho relative urgency of the local fronts. "Dizzying, Dismal Circle" Tho fastest time for delivery of bulk cargo from America to China is 75 to 90 days. Although Japanese sources suggest that some American equipment is arriving in China via Russia the amount cannot be large. " Our problems pursue each other in a dizzying, dismal circle," said a military authority in Washington, in admitting that an eventual passage through Burma would be hard to force unless the British and American attacks were supported by Chinese forces in the north. This the Chinese can hardly do without munitions and heavy equipment. " Thus, tho plans both of Washington and Chungking appear to bo based on holding the Japanese and compensating for Chinese inferiority in the army by superiority in the air," states one military commentator. " Madame Chiang Kai-shek wants a balanced air force of 100 lighters and 400 bombers," lie adds, "but at present there are neither adequate airfields nor sufficient air transports available to shuttle fuel and supplies from India to keep a large air force functioning in China." DISTRUSTED ALLY JAPAN'S DISLIKE FOR NAZIS (Reed. 5.35 p.m.) WASHINGTON. March 20 "The Japanese know Hitler cannot lie trusted and they have no use for the Germans, anyway," writes. Mr. Frederick Moore adviser to the Japanese Embassy in Washington until the attack on Pearl Harbour, in the magazine World Affairs. Mr. Moore says Hitler has twice deceived the Japanese ill the last seven years—first, by joining them in the anti-Comintern pact and then making a non-aggression pact with M. Stalin and, secondly, by attacking Russia without adequately warning Japan. "The Japanese dislike for the Germans dates back to Kaiser Wilhelm's yellow peril alarms," adds the writer. "The Japanese army also remembers resentfully that it was German officers who instructed and equipped the Chinese so well that Japan was forced to pay a heavy price for the capture of Shanghai in 1938. The navy is not likely to allow the army to aid Hitler while the American Navy is still a major enemy force." AMERICA AND FUTURE MAINTENANCE OF PEACE WASHINGTON. March 20 President Roosevelt, at a press conference, endorsed the broad principles of the resolution by Senators Ball, Burton, Hill and Hatch seeking to establish a United Nations post-war planning organisation. Mr. Roosevelt said it would bo helpful to have the world know that tho United States was ready and willing to help maintain future peace. He said his own post-war committee, headed by xMr. Cordell Hull and Mr. Sumner Welles, was discussing the possibility of calling another United Nations conference. In addition two food conferences were now tentatively scheduled for the spring. He emphasised that the two food conferences were entirely different and should not be confused, explaining that one would deal with long-range world-wide food plans and the other with immediate post-war food relief. All the United Nations would be represented. TIDE TURNED FOR GOOD (Reed. 7.150 p.m. " LONDON, March '2O "On the hattlcfront the clouds are lifting," said the Prime Minister of South Africa, General Smuts, in a broadcast from Johannesburg. "The tide has turned, nlu 1 turned for good. Whatever desperate and deadly expedient the enemy may yet resort to in his despair, the historic human advance well not be halted —the great litdif will not be put out." CABLES IN BRIEF Turkish Mission in Algiers.—lt is officially announced that a Turkish mission has arrived in Algiers to confer with Allied lenders Workers from Bahamas.—The Government of the Bahamas has agreed to send 5000 workers to the United States to help to counter ?K diortage of farm labour. More Canadians in Britain.---Another contingent of Canadian troops has arrived in Britain, comprising an infantry armoured corps, artillery, engineers, medical, signals and service corps personnel, also naval and air force reinforcements. American National Income.—The Secretary ol Commerce. Mr. .lesse Jones, reported thai file national income in 1912 reached the record high total of 119,800.000.000 dollars. Ho predicted that the total would be M 0,000.000,000 dollars in 194:5. The cost of living, Mr. Jones added, had risen 22} per cent since August. 19.'?!). Labour Service. —President Roosevelt said in Washington that the adoption of a compulsory national labour service should be avoided until it was necessary. Ho emphasised that a national service would create a lot more complicated machinery and make for increased regimentation, but he added, that, of course, tho war could not be won without some regimentation.