ALLIES WELD SOLID FRONT

Southland Times, Issue 24628, 27 December 1941, Page 5

ALLIES WELD SOLID FRONT

MEETING IN CHUNGKING

MORE JAPANESE TRANSPORTS OFF LUZON (United Press Association —Telegraph Copyright) (Rec. 1.15 a.m.) LONDON, December 26. While the Allied defenders of Malaya and the Philippines continue to resist the Japanese invaders vigorously, far-reaching steps are being taken to weld a solid anti-Axis front in the Pacific. General Sir Archibald Wavell, commander-in-chief in India, has just spent three days in Chungking conferring with the Chinese commander-in-chief, Marshal Chiang Kai-shek, and the chief of the United States Army Air Corps, Major-General D. H. Brett. As a result of these talks a military council has been formed. No report of the talks in Washington between President Roosevelt and the British Prime Minister, Mr Winston Churchill, has yet been issued. Although there lias been patrol activity not far from Kuala Kanipar, in Malaya, it is stated in Singapore that the situation is unchanged. A new threat in the middle of the isthmus is reported and the Japanese arc trying to push down from the north-east along the line of the railway. It is stated that the British casualties so far arc lighter than was expected, as many units given up for lost have fought their way back. The lightly equipped Japanese are using light carriers for transport in the jungle and rafts on the rivers.

A Manila Army communique issued at 7.30 a.m. today says the defenders of Luzon are successfully resisting enemy pressure on the north and south fronts and adds that additional landings have not been reported. This morning new Japanese transports were sighted off the west coast of Luzon, 50 miles from Manila.