NOTES ON THE WAR

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXXII, Issue 8871, 8 February 1943, Page 3

NOTES ON THE WAR

JAPAN’S PRESENT POLICY UNCERTAINTY &' MYSTERY DEFENCE OF NEW EMPIRE Though things are going v eil in what might be termed !hc Atlantic theatre of the war, covering the campaigns in Russia and North Africa and the air and sea war over Western Europe, the Mediterranean and the Western Ocean, there is still a good deal of uncertainty and mystery about Japan’s policy in the Pacific and Eastern Asia. Are further offensives contemplated to extend the boundaries of Japan’s new-won Empire, or is the policy to limit operations to securing the outer defences of that empire, including the seizure of vital strategic positions not now %in Japanese possession or the desperate defence of positions already hold but threatened ? There is little recent- informatioi on what is going on inside the nev Japanese empire. American newspapers concentrate almost wholly or the actual fighting in the South-wes" 'Pacific from Timor and New Guiner round the Archipelago of which Rahaul is the principal enemy base. In the' war in this quarter, whirl so far, except for the expulsion of tlv Japanese from Papua and the continuance of the campaign into adjoining New Guinea, has been one of attrition on land, at sea and in the air the enemy has had the worse of the exchanges, but has not yet suffered any decisive defeat, let alone a major disaster. In spite of almost continuous Allied air attacks on various bases in the islands, the Japanese are still capable of _offensive action in this area, an I still a potential danger to Australia and this country. Until the main Japanese fleet is crippled or reduced to something like impotence, the threat will remain and anxiety in Australia be not unfounded. On the other hand, should Allied —mainly American —sea-power in the Pacific suffer heavy losses, which is always possible in the wide contingencies of modern war, the threat would become serious. There is no great balance of all-round military power in favour of the Allies in the Pacific theatre as there is in the Atlantic zone. But the prospects on land and in the air, despite the Axis fortification of strategic positions in Tunisia, are so good against the European Axis that any transfer of Allied " power to the 'Pacific might endanger or at least postpone an early victory over Hitler. Apart from that there is the problem of shipping and the U-boat. Hence, from a fair assessment of the factors, the decision to settle with Hitler first is no doubt the correct one. Strengthening Defence Meanwhile, the Japanese are strengthening and will continfte to strengthen their outer defences until the Allies are ready to concentrate their whole strength, released from Europe, on the Pacific. This involves certain dangers. One of these is the danger to China, emphasised in* recent news by the wife of the Chinese Ambassador to London in a speech at Philadelphia. Mrs Wellington Koo said: “Chinese resistance to Japanese aggression is facing collapse because of the Allies’ failure to send the promised food and munitions.” There is probably an element of propaganda in this passage and in the rest of the speech quoted in the news, and it need not be taken at its full face value. The statement has been, made that more supplies have been going by air to China from India than ever went by the Burma Road, and Allied “failure” is- therefore relative rather to the need of the Chinese to arm and supply an army capable of dealing with the Japanese than to a dereliction of pledges by the Allies. But in the second half of their sixth year of war with Japan—it began in June, 1937—the Chinese must be feeling more than a little lonely and warweary. The loss of the Burma Road, poor as it was for the supply of war material for a populous nation, must have enhanced greatly the feeling of isolation. An air service is no adequate substitute, especially when it has to cross some of the highest country in the world. The new road to China via Assam is an engineering job far more difficult even than the Burma Read, and the recent disastrous hurricane in Bengal and Assam did much damage to the part of the road already constructed. It will hardly he possible to finish the \oad before the monsoonal rains inUate May or early June. Slow ProgreSteJn Burma,, The Allied operation in But mu as ka preliminary to the of iUjiat country are •'-

’can coast is some of the world’s worst, worse probably than even the Papuan track over the Owen Stanley Range traversed by the Australians from Moresby to Buna, or the regions where the Americans are fighting in Guadalcanal. The Allies are doing a heavy job of bombing jn Burma, -but the whole war has shown that air operations cannot succeed without the co-opera-tion of the other arms in the job of conquest. Crete, with its unique circumstances, is only the exception to the rule. It cannot be said, for the time be'ng at any rate, that China is any better off than she was before the Allies 'altered the war with Japan. Fighl:ng in China drags on in sporadic, spasmodic campaigns in which ground is gained and lost and.regained, with the final result much “as you were.” The Japanese have shown themselves rather more active than in the ■oast, and there is fairly heavy fight‘ng on the Yunnan border with the nemy trying to push in from Burma. Operation? in other parts of China have l.jon indecisive. Whether the Japanese will attempt a decision later in 'the year by a joint attack from he north, east and south-it. is impossible to say. Russia’s Role j One of the maim reasons for the J decision of the Allied leaders in fight | Hitler first and get rid of him is that j victory in Europe would release the i Russians to deal with Japan in the I Far East. At present Russia is not \ ■:i war with Japan, bin both nations, maintain large armies facing each ! other in East cun Siberia and Man-’ ehuria. The. may account ;'<ir -he re- 1 luelruiee of Japan to p; u-:s the oifon- j sive in China. In any event Eastern Siberia is the ; best base of all f;om which to aRe-k j Japan. This has long been reeogim- j ed. especially by the Japanese, who, j if they did not have their hands full ; just now on the oilier side of their, empire, would almost certainly fall i in with Hitler's desire that they \ should attack Russia in [he Far East. ! The last war of Japan and Russia j —1904-s—was intended to free Japan j itself from the danger of attack from j the west. It is to be noted that the Americans have finished their 1600-mile highway —the Alcan road—from the railhead in Alberta up the east side of the ; Rockies to Fairbanks, in Alaska, and it is now open if or traffic. This great military road) should serve no! only for .the dcfeiSce of Alaska but for the concentration of American military Bower to attack Japan from the north.