LATE NEWS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24855, 3 March 1942, Page 6

LATE NEWS

SOUTHERN BURMA JAPANESE FLANKING MOVE (Rec. 1.30 a.m.) NEW YORK, Mar. 2. The Mandalay correspondent of the United Press says: “ The Japanese, whose frontal drive on the Lower Sittang River has been checked, struck northward on Monday, threatening to trap the defenders in Southern Burma. This flanking move, in which large forces are moving towards Shwegyin, 50 miles above Pegu, is apparently a prelude to a big-scale offensive across Rangoon and the neck of Burma towards the Bay of Bengal. The main body of Japanese is apparently concentrated east of Sittang, while patrols from both sides are crossing and recrossing the shallow stream to test the rival strengths.” The situation in the far north, where the Chinese are holding the Southern Shan States, appears to be comparatively quiet. REFUGEES FROM RANGOON NUMBERS ARRIVING IN INDIA (Rec. 1.35 a.m.) LONDON, Mar. 2. Numbers of those who escaped from Rangoon are arriving in India every day, many on foot by the two land routes the Burma Government opened, which are from Prorae to Akyab and from Rangoon to Dinajpur. Government officials, says the Delhi correspondent of The Times, are making an effort to provide motor transport. BATTLE FOR STARAYA RUSSA i NAZIS STRENGTHENING DEFENCES (Rec. 1.35 a.m.) LONDON, Mar. 2. Moscow despatches state that the Staraya Russa , Cathedral and wrecked houses can be seen from the Russian positions. A Russian who escaped from Staraya Russa related that the Germans are further fortifying the city and forcing the population from 35 nearby villages to do the heavy part. They are working 18 hours a day. In the north the Red troops are slowly but surely blasting their way to the relief of Leningrad, and the German positions over a large area are seriously threatened. Marshal Timoshenko’s offensive continues in the south, and there is fierce fighting in the Crimea. ALLIED WARSHIPS TRANSFER TO PACIFIC URGED (Rec. 2 a.m.) BANDQENG, Mar. 2. A Dutch naval spokesman, Mr H. V. • Quispel, in a frank statement, calls on the Allies to transfer warships from the Atlantic and from convoying in the South Pacific to strengthen Admiral Helfrich’s small and now battered naval force, and thus preserve Java as an advanced base. Java’s collapse, he said, would damage the sea supply line to such an extent that the Burma road would lose its significance and provide the Japanese with a free hand in Asiatic waters. The situation is serious, but. by no means hopeless, because, properly defended, Java would serve as a base for a naval and air offensive. The risk taken by transferring the forces at present engaged in convoying and patrolling to the Pacific would be relatively small. Naval reinforcements would give considerable relief provided the ships were used offensively. When the enemy has found that his transports everywhere ran the risk of being attacked he would have to protect his convoys with at least equal forces. The risk would bother him because his cargo space and reserve materials were far less than those of the Allies. Japan had already lost an enormous amount of merchant shipping and a not inconsiderable part of her battle fleet had been destroyed or damaged.