JAPAN IN SOUTH

Timaru Herald, Volume CL, Issue 22043, 16 August 1941, Page 6

JAPAN IN SOUTH

Menace To Thailand Bases In Cambodia The military and economic reasons for Japans incursion into southern Indo-China are readily apparent to anyone who stucyes the geography of the great peninsula that goes by the name of Further India and comprises Indo-China, Thailand and the southern part of Burma. Obviously one of Japan's main purposes has been to obtain naval and air bases as near as possiole to Malaya and the Netherlands Indies. She is now in occupation of the fine harbour of Camranh Bay, on the east coast, about 850 miles north-north-east of Singapore. This has been described as a Far Eastern Scapa Flow, in which a whole navy could lie at anchor, protected from al! weathers. Eastern Mountain Barrier As lar as air bases are concerned, the map shows that Cape Cambodia, the southern extremity oi Indo-China, is 500 miles north of Singapore and 250 miles across the Gulf of Siam from the nearest point on the north-east coast of British Malaya. Less apparent at first sight are Japans reasons for not being satisfied with the foothold she gained months ago in Tongking, the northernmost province of Indo-China. One of these was that Tongking was useless as a base from which to put military pressure upon Thailand. Down nearly the whole length of the French territory, forming a double curve, runs a contmous chaui of mountains, an offshoot of the Yunnan group in southern China. This range reaches heights of nearly 600 ft., is thinly inhabited and, except for a few primitive trade routes, almost impassable. The coastal belt between it and the sea is only a few miles wide in places and is traversed by a railway connecting Hanoi, the captail of Tongking, with Saigon in the south. No Strategic Frontier

Cambodia and Cochin China, the rich provinces which Japan has now occupied, lie south and west of the mountain chain at its lower end and contain the lower reaches of the great River Mekong, which with the Yang-.ze-kiang and the Burmese Salween, rises more than 2000 miles Inland on the Tibetan Plateau. Like the region of Thailand around Bangkok and the delta of the River Menam, the two provinces are immense producers of rice, which Japan urgently needs and is determined to procure on her own terms. From the military point of view, the value of Cambodia is that it forms part of the great interior basin between the eastern mountains and the narrower range which runs south from Burma to form the Malay Peninsula. Thailand, occupying must ol me basin, has no s.rategic frontier with Cambodia, and apparently an invasion from the latter would not encounter any serious natural obstacles. About 250 miles of the coast southeastward from Bangkok is occupied by a mountain range which the recent boundary changes have made Thai territory. Tne lowlands on either side oi this are flooded annually by the rivers, and being dotted with swamps and intei sected by a maze of waterways they afford no good route for an advancing army. Further inland, however, are wide stretches of plain, sandy and almost oarren, averaging 200 or 300 feet above sea level. The Thai border crosses this region, which lies west of the Mekong, and it may be presumed that the troops now stated to be manning the frontier are stationed principally in it with the object of resisting a westward march on Bangkok. Such a Thai force would have the use of two lines of railway running from the capital. Southern Thailand is of strategic interest because it extends about 550 miles down the long neck of the Malay Peninsula from the head of the Gulf of Siam to the border of Malaya. For the first 300 miles the isthmus is divided between Thailand and the southernmost province of Burma, Tenasserim, the boundary following the crest of the mountain range. Just where Tenasserlm ends is Kra, the low neck through which Japan some years ago proposed to build a ship canal bypassing Singapore. A Difficult Route

A railway line runs down the isthmus to a point above the Malaya border, where is divides in two, one branch traversing the central part of the Malay Pensinula and the other following the more populous south-western coast through Penang. The lines eventually join and continue on to Singapore. In Southern Thailand are two good harbours within 150 miles of the Malayan frontier. Singora and , Patani. Japan is said to have made overtures lately to Thailand for the lease of Singora as a naval base. Apart from the railway, communications on the isthmus are poor, and an arm', seeking to attack Malaya by that route would meet many difficulties even before it reached the mountains and jungles of the northern Malay States.

Nearness to Burma Although Thailand is quite close to the lowland region of Burma around the mouths of the Irrawaddy and Salween Rivers, a rugged mountain region intervenes, and in this military operations would be hazardous. P csse3S '° l '' of northern Siam would not brmg tne Japanese appreciably nearer to tne Burma Road than they would be in northern Tongking, but they would be closei to the main railway line from R-ngoon to Mandalay and Lashio, th_ western terminus of the road The climate of southern Indo-China and Thaland, although not so hot as that of India, is very humid and trying to Europeans. Whether Japanese troops from a temperate homeland will find it eqv_2_^mj±__2 ** 5