JAPANESE THREAT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 226, 25 September 1942, Page 3

JAPANESE THREAT

FACTORS FAVOURING ACTION, Notwithstanding Japan’s commit- ( ments in China, Burma, Malaya, the East Indies and the South-westerrt Pacific the belief is growing that she will soon attack Russia. With Russia hard pressed in the west (states the New Zealand Herald) it is obviously a propitious moment for Japan, if she thinks she has the resources, to strike for common Axis benefit and for her own defensive and predatory ends. The large Japanese army maintained in Mdnchukuo has already aided the Axis Powers by containing considerable Russian forces in Siberia. To reinforce it, even as a threat would add to that aid, but observers are of the opinion that Japan intends to strike. A few weeks ago Profesor Stephen H. Roberts, of Sydney, w r rote: “The battles of the Don and Alamein are clearly connected with Japan’s policy in Asiatic Russia. If Japan thinks that the European and African battles will finally turn in Axis favour, she will certainly invade Siberia in order to remove the last danger of an Allied attack on the Japanese mainland. Many Far Eastern observers believe that the intensified drive in China and the occupation of islands in the outer Aleutians are merely preliminaries to the invasion of the Maritime and Baikalian provinces of Siberia.” Another commentator considers as significant the recent strong Japanese offensive in the Suiyuan province of Inner Mongolia. “If an occupation of Suiyuan cut a relatively unimportant caravan route to the Russian sphere of influence in Outer Mongolia,” he said, “it also prepared the way for a direct attack on the Irkutsk and Lake Baikal regions, the very heart of Siberia.” Chinese Opinion. Dr. George Yen, director of the Chinese Ministry of Information, now states that, in addition to preparing for a move against the Maritime provinces, the Japanese are concentrating troops on the southern edge of the Mongolian plateau to guard their flank and to prevent the Russian and Chinese forces joining up in Suiyuan. There are three zones of possible attack in Eastern Siberia. First, the cohstal zone, with its railway from Khaborovsk to Vladivostock, which is extremely exposed, particularly to naval attack. The new strategic ports of Seishin and Rashin, in North Korea, would give much more expedition to operations than would be the ease if Dairen were used. But in any case, the south and west frontiers of the tongue are bound to be thoroughly manned already if attack is intended. The second layer of Siberian territory comprises the Amur and- TransBaikalian provinces, in which the main military objective is the Siberian railway, which runs close to the frontier. It is impossible to have continuous fortifications along such an extensive frontier, and the defence revolves around the highly-fortified I posts of Khaborovsk on the extreme left. Blagoveschensk in the centre, and Chita in the west. Mineral Riches. The third region around Lake Baikal has so many resources that it has always figured prominently in the list of Japanese ambitions. If Japan’s immediate purpose in attacking Russia would be to remove the threat of air attack from Vladivostok and its hinterland, her permanent aim would flotibtless be the seizure of the Lake Baikal province. While the fall of the Maritime provinces would remove the' last weakness in Japan’s defensive wall, the mineral wealth of Lake Baikal, and Irkutsk would be a major gain to her national strength. This region, 1000 miles east of the industrial cities of the Urals, is known as the Kuznetsk Basin, containing the great Kuzbas coalfield. The proximity of this to iron ore deposits brought into being the steel plant of Stalinsk, which is one of five industrial towns with a combined population of 750,000. It has been pointed out by a military correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald that long-range American bombers w-ould be a factor in any Siberian war. They could readily come in by the chain of air bases the Soviet has recently constructed in North-eastern Siberia to Kamchatka, and even if the Vladivostock area fell these bombers could still attack th.’ Japanese mainland.