AXIS OBJECTIVES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 68, 21 March 1942, Page 5

AXIS OBJECTIVES

GERMANY AND JAPAN PLANS OF UNITED STATES IMPORTANCE OF PACIFIC Rugby, March 18. There is keen discussion in informed quarters in Britain over the next objectives of the Axis and the Allied plans for frustrating them. The Times considers that the Japanese, knowing that their ultimate success depends upon a simultaneous German victory, must, as an essential part cf their policy, contribute to that victoryjapan, it says, can pursue this part of her programme in many ways, such as preying on the British sea routes between India and the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, and the Cape of Good Hope. She can seek to interrupt the traffic of Australia and New Zealand with the rest of the world. She might attemnt to seize some point such as Colombo. or even extend her arm as far as Madagascar. She might embark on an invasion of the Ganges Valley, or. more probably, subject it to heavy bombing attacks. Australia might be either a main or a lesser objective in uils strategy. In order to establish a common front with Germany, a Japanese advance into the Arabtan Sea would have to coincide with German attacks on Egypt. Syria, the Caucasus, and the Middle East as a whole, The Times continues. A junction of the two hostile Powers would be a "major disaster for the British Empire and the Allies, and not least for Russia,” but the obstacles to such a vast ambition are formidable. First of all, the Russian advance would have to he stopped along the whole front, and then the reorganised Soviet Army would have to be overcome in the south. The powerful forces in the Middle East would have to be eliminated. Such operations, says The Times, would entail overland transport problems of immense complexity. The Japanese part in the scheme would also depend on the willingness of Tokio to engage its naval forces and shipping far away from the main naval theatre against America. A deduction which is made by The Times is the necessity for maintaining the solidity of the Middle East positions as the vital link between the power at home and the Allied power in the Pacific represented by India. Australia and China. Task in the Pacific "While Russia boldly confronts the weight of German land power on the Continent,” says The Times, "Britain must guard her own and Russia’s maritime communications and must hold the crucial Middle Eastern bridge and the Indian bridgehead. In the Pacific, where the Americans, British, Australians, and Chinese, as i well as the gallant survivors of the Dutch forces, are fighting side by side ■ the main directive must come from I Washington, which is the most pro- | line source of reinforcements and ' supplies. ; "The grand pattern of resistance to the totalitarian aggressors is taking shape. But much still remains to be done before the commands can be defined and organised, the plans devised and fitted into a comprehensive master-plan, and above all. the marshalling of men and material to the decisive points at the decisive moment organised and executed.’’— 8.0.W. *