Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1944. MOVING TOWARDS CHINA.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 April 1944, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 1944. MOVING TOWARDS CHINA.

WHATEVER else may be aimed at in the Burma campaign, a * most essential object evidently is to establish as soon as possible more effective contact with China, so that greatly increased quantities of tear material may be transported into that country, for the use. of the Chinese armies now almost at a standstill'for want of it and in order that the operations of Allied air forces in China may be extended and enlarged. This means amongst other things t he re-opening of the Burma. Road, running from Lashio into Yunnan, and the extension the supplementary. Ledo Road, which engineers of General Stillwell’s command have cut from Assam into northern Burma. It is a fact of some importance, however, that China, according to recent statements by American Army leaders, is now receiving at least twice and possibly three times the quantity of war equipment —measured by weight that she ever received over the Burma Road. These supplies are being transported by air. More than half of them, it was reported recently by Mr Selwyn Speight, staff correspondent in Chungking of the “Sydney Morning Herald,”

are going to Major-General Chennault, commander of the United States Army Air Foi’ce in China, who at last is harrying the Japanese bases as he had planned to do .for years.

Another point made by Mr Speight was that in Burma the Allies have tied up a very substantial Japanese force which may one day find real difficulty in extricating itself.” ■Whatever may be the precise position meantime reached in northern Burma', it has been mentioned that operations in that region are already being hampered by pre-monsoon rains. Presumably they will be hampered to a much greater degree when the period of the monsoon opens next month. Normally the monsoon lasts from May until the end of October and during that period the interior area of Burma is so deluged by heavy rain as largely to preclude military movement on a big scale. This does not promise well for the early opening of land communications with China by way either of the Burma Road or the new Ledo Road, but there are some possible alternatives to a stalemate in Burma lasting until towards the end of this year. It has been suggested, for instance, that the Allied forces under the supreme command of Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten may be able to develop a seaborne attack against the 300 mile stretch of south Thailand between Victoria Point and the Malayan frontier. Many authorities hold, it is said, that the establishment of an Allied beach-head on this narrow neck would open the way to an effective attack on Japan in South and Central China.

Describing this area as consisting of low hills, excellent landing beaches and much hard, open terrain on which armoured forces could operate effectively and on which, aerodromes could be built, Mr Homer Metz observed some time ago in an article in the “Christian Science Monitor” that: —

It is pointed out by the proponents of a Thailand assault that once an Allied landing force had driven- across the 100 miles or so that separate the Indian Ocean from the China Sea, the enemy’s forces in Burma would be cut off from those in Singapore, while at the same time the Allies would be in a most advantageous position for an asasult against the western supply lines of the Japanese and for a drive towards China’s south coast.

Prospects of a land campaign developing on these lines may be heightened not a little by the progress across the Pacific towards the Philippines and China of United States naval and air forces.