WORK AND TIME

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 94, 23 April 1942, Page 5

WORK AND TIME

QUESTION IN INDIA REVIEW BY GENERAL WAVELL BUILDING UP AIR POWER (By Telegraph—Pre.ii Association—Copyright.) London, April 21. In a broadcast from New Delhi to-night, General Wavcll, Com-mandcr-in-Chief, India, indicated . that. British air strength in India i had been powerfully reinforced. . “1 can tell you,” he declared, “that our defences by figher aircraft and c.U oiir guns are already i strong enough in the most threat’i ene-d quarters of India to cause 1 Japanese raiders heavier losses than they have yet suffered elsewhere. c “Our defence is growing in strength almost daily, and is expanding over i India.” > General Wavel warned the people s that India’s immediate clanger lay in g attacks from the air rather than irom s invasion, but assured them that it was g not in the power of the Japanese to bring air attacks against the cities ol •. India on anything approaching the s scale, in intensity ana continuity, ot ? the German attacks on Great Britain t or of our air attacks on Germany. He recalled that he was in binga- ] pore only a Lew days before it fell - when it had been experiencing con- - tinuous raiding lor some time at the I maximum scale which the Japanese a air force could bring to bear. e Yet Singapore had few scars, and - there were lew casualties, military or s civilian, in spite of inadequate des fences. The same was true of Ran- - goon, except for one raid when casual- - Lies were heavy through failure to take cover. Referring to the danger of invasion which he described as “less immediate, though real,” General VVavell declared: “India will be defended by a powerful air-strik-ing force which will attack enem.) ships as they approach, and by a land-striking force, which will cony centrate rapidly against any e threatened point.” • s General Wavcll explained that it 1 was impossible to erect defences along ■’ the whole immen;,' coastline of India, and said ho certainly did not intend to > do so. Until the United Nations had sea power to drive the Japanese from r s the Indian Ocean —a time which might I- not be so far distant—a landing somee where on the coast of India might be 1 attempted by the enemy. , " “The Japanese might seek to occupy a a portion of the country temporarily,’ s he said, “but so long 'as India re--1 mains true to herself she cannot be " conquered.” He assured his listeners t that ultimate victory in the war e against the Axis Powers was beyond s all doubt. I He said: “You have on your c side four of the toughest and most enduring nations of the world—il Britain China, Russia, and— America—so you need not worry about our victory. It is only a ■; question of work and time.”