IN THE PACIFIC

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21357, 27 February 1941, Page 7

IN THE PACIFIC

AIMS OF JAPAN LINES OF ATTACK OPINION OF ADMIRAL (United Press Assn.—Eiec. Tel. Copyright) SINGAPORE, Feb. 26 In Japan, the United States is represented as the aggressor keeping a peacefully-inclined nation on the jump, says a correspondent who has just returned from Tokio. In some Japanese quarters, Australia, too, is linked up with the aggressor nations. To these people Australia is part of a potential line of encirclement, or “American horseshoe,” as it has been called. This horseshoe is seen as extending from San Francisco, through Hawaii, to New Zealand and Australia, and thence to Manila and Singapore. Admiral Nobumasa Suyetsugu, president of the Central Co-opera-tive Council of the Imperial Rule Assistance Association, and a most influential Japanese, high in the Imperial war councils, has been discussing the question of war in the ±-*acific. The obvious line uf attack for the American Fleet is a line connecting San Francisco, Hawaii, Midway, Guam and the Philippines. But it happens that this is precisely the course over which Japan has “a vast network of defences”—from the Kuriles in the north, to Formosa in the south. Since a headlong thrust by the American Fleet on this line would be its nose into a trap, it is not likely to adopt such a course, says Admiral Suyetsugu. The Shortest Course The northern route, he says, is along the Aleutians and Kamchatka, down to the Kuriles and Hokkaido. This is the shortest course, but it is foggy all the year round. With such bad visibility no fleet can operate on a big scale, nor make much use of aeroplanes. The only course remaining for the American Fleet, therefore, is the southern one. This is why the United States is so bent on fortifying its southern bases, says the admiral. He states that the attack route which American strategists are visualising is a line extending from a point south of Hawaii, south of the Japanese mandated islands to New Zealand, Australia, Manila and Singapore, and that this line is intended to encircle Japan. “If a big fleet clings to Manila or Singapore,” Admiral Suyetsugu adds, “the waters round it will be blockaded and the ships attacked by aircraft. Consequently, if they wish to come to grips with the Japanese Navy, they must come up into waters near Japan.” AIRCRAFT OUTPUT PRODUCTION IN AMERICA SIR W. CITRINE IMPRESSED (United Press Assn.—Elec. Tel. Copyrig-ht) LONDON, Feb. 25 Broadcasting on his extensive three and a-half months’ tour of the United States, from which he recently returned, Sir Walter Citrine, Secretary of the Trades Union Congress, said he told the American people the British people were not built in a mould, but were “just common, ordinary people trying to meet a great emergency with the courage and fortitude it demanded.” America, he said, was determined to help with all methods to prosecute the war. “ I had very great opportunities of visiting many American aeroplane factories,” he said. “ I can only summarise it this way. There is a steady and constant improvement in American production. “ There were 78,000 men employed in the aircraft industry last July. Now there are over 250,000, and by June there will be 500,000. “ I will go so far as to say that the American aircraft industry is expanding at an incredible rate. Factories are being built at an enormous speed. I saw many of these factories in course of erection. I take my hat off to the way in which the Americans are setting about the task.” By September, Sir Walter added, American production would be on a very high level, which, he thought, added to British production, would be in excess of the German output.