JAPAN’S PLANS IN EAST

Southland Times, Issue 24352, 5 February 1941, Page 4

JAPAN’S PLANS IN EAST

Danger Of Influence In Thailand SPECIAL MEASURES AT SINGAPORE (Special to The Times) DUNEDIN, February 4. The danger to the Malay States and Singapore of mediation by Japan in the Thailand-Indo-China dispute was emphasized by Mr Lewis A. Moss, a mining engineer who has returned to New Zealand after five years in the East. In an interview Mr Moss, who took his degree at Otago Uinversity, said that Thailand was the back door to Singapore and the inevitable increase in Japanese influence in that country as a result of her intervention in the border war would create a threat to Singapore that had formerly been considered remote. “Even the jungles of Jahore, which constitute a formidable barrier between Thailand and Malay,” Mr Moss said, “are not now considered as impenetrable as before in the light of the changing situation in the Far East, and it is certain that a land attack on Britain’s great naval base at Singapore is a possibility that is not being overlooked by the military authorities. Special measures have been taken and the people of Singapore are confident that the fortifications of the base are capable of withstanding any attack, but recent developments in Thailand will probably have increased their anxiety. “The Thais do not, I believe, like the British,” Mr Moss continued. “They were very excited and patriotic about their war with Indo-China and in the event of British reverses in Europe they would probably gain confidence and launch an attack on Kedah and Kelantan, two northerly states of Malay. These two states arc not in the Federation, but, although independent, are advised by Britain, and Thailand would consider their conquest merely as a return of her own property.”

JAPAN’S DEMANDS The colour question was one which affected relationships in the East to a greater extent than was realized out here, Mr Moss said. It had to be realized that the native races of the East would, in many cases, rather be controlled by Japan, another coloured race, than by Britain. In the event of an attack against Singapore, the attitude of the natives was problematical.” “Japan’s demand for naval bases in Thailand,” he continued, “will almost certainly include the port of Singora in the south. It has an excellent anchorage. Properly constructed, it would be a formidable base that would be a grave threat to Singapore and would be another link in the chain of Japanese bases commanding the railway from Thailand to both Singapore and the port of Penang. It would also be a threat to the British air base at Alor Star in Kedah, while an aerodrome there would command the shipping route between Burma and Malay, a route that carries a heavy rice traffic, an essential foodstuff in the Malay States. “In the meantime, however,” Mi' Moss concluded, “Singapore is a base, the fortifications of which are unknown in strength to most people. Its recent development has been kept very secret, but with its 18-inch guns, vast concrete emplacements, its machine-gun nests, and miles of barbed-wire entanglements it is a base which inspires confidence in the population of the Malay States. Unlike the people of Java and the other islands of the Dutch East Indies who arc fearful of Japan’s southward drive, the inhabitants of Singapore are not afraid of attack.”