WHERE WILL JAPAN STRIKE?

Evening Star, Issue 24293, 7 September 1942, Page 2

WHERE WILL JAPAN STRIKE?

S.W. PACIFIC AND INDIA ENEMY PLANNING NEW MAJOR MOVE (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) (llec. 11 a.m.) SYDNEY, Sept. 7. Where will Japan strike next? An extraordinary divergence of views on this vital question lias become evident during the past few days. Until the week-end the body of responsible opinion was that Japan’s forces were being massed for an attack on llussia, but with the Siberian campaigning season rapidly approaching its end many commentators profess the opinion that Japan has been merely feinting at Siberia, and that she will direct her main thrusts in the South-west Pacific and against India. George Welles, correspondent of the Chicago ‘ Daily News ’ in Australia, deplores the tendency of the man in the street to treat the Pacific events of the past few weeks as a major defeat for the Japanese. Ho declares that the present enemy offensive lull is not duo to lack of strength. He emphasises that .Japan must continue to strike. , Australian commentators feel that, whatever other offensive commitments Japan is prepared to undertake, she cannot afford to neglect the Southwest Pacific, where the United Nations have already moved to the attack. High Washington, quarters are also reported to incline increasingly towards the view that J apa-n will concentrate her forces in this area. They foresee the danger that Japan is prepared to disregard the cost in her effort to neutralise Australia and New Zealand as Allied offensive bases. American naval experts would not bo surprised if the Japanese naval units withdrawn from the Solomons suddenly reappeared strongly reinforced off the New Guinea coast. The Washington ‘ Star’s ’ foreign editor confirms the Chungking reports that some of the Japanese divisions withdrawn from China have already embarked for the South-west Pacific.

While observers believe the Allies are now strong enough to hold the United Nations’ South Pacific territories, they are less optimistic about the situation in the event of a full-scale Japanese drive on India. Cabling the New York ‘ Evening Post ’ from New Delhi, A. T. Steele warns that anti-Bri-tish feeling is growing throughout India. ‘ If the Japanese start an invasion the sullen state of mind of the Indians will be a problem of the first magnitude,” he says.

Raymond Gram Swing, the best known of American news analysts, is one of those who believe that India, and not Siberia, is Japan’s immediate goal. He says: “It is plain that the enemy is preparing a new major move, and while many predict an attack on Siberia, Chinese reports that six new Japanese mechanised divisions have appeared in Burma and Indo-China appear to indicate that India is Japan’s objective.” In Siberia, where the Russians are prepared to wage guerrilla war and the vast distances favour strategic withdrawals, the Japanese would face the danger of an indecisive _ struggle, Mr Swing declares. He derives comfort from Mr Togo’s going, which, he says, indicates that Japan’s master plan for war is not going well. A warning that Japan’s industrial strength is first rate, and that she would be able to withstand many years of stalemate war is sounded by Ray Cromley, the 1 Wall Street Journal ’ representative, just repatriated from Tokio. She can be weakened only by attacks on her key industrial plants. “ Japan’s heavy industry is largely new and wholly planned for military purposes.” he says. “ She is new singularly rich in raw materials. Japan’s weakness is shortage of electric power. Moreover, Japan’s rail system is pitifully weak. Her scattered resources require, according to Japanese estimates, 15 to 20 million tons of shipping. Constant sniping of Japan’s lines of communication is therefore one of the most effective wavs of weakening Japanese production.”