THE CHINESE RECOVERY.

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 253, 27 October 1942, Page 4

THE CHINESE RECOVERY.

Japanese attempts to recover positions at two points in China have been defeated by • General Chiang Kai-shek's forees, and at the same time further brilliant air raids have been made by the Americans on Japanese positions. China maintains the vitality which she proved in the recapture of Chuhsien and Lishui, the two important air bases in the Chekiang Province. .These bases are the only points! in possession of the United Nations from which Japan could be bombed with any effect. It is not to be supposed that they were left in a condition to^ be used without a great deal of repair. Even if the aircraft, with the ground staffs and the necessary supplies, were available they could hardly work from such exposed stations which, as things are, might be lost again to a Japanese return in force. None the less, the Japanese must be intensely disappointed at having had to abandon these important points, as well as a long stretch of the Nan-chang-Hangchow railway. A few weeks ago they seemed on the point of occupying this line over its whole length, and it would have been extremely useful to them. If the Japanese are marking time in China, it is because they have been compelled to do so. Often enough in China the Japanese had. made advances only to retire to their original hases, and it may be that in many cases this was according to plan, that their object had been to break up Chinese concentrations and to fall back when this had been achieved. But never before have they given up the control of an important railway when it was practically in their hanas or evacuated places of such potentiai value, both to them and to their enemies, as the Chekiang bases. Up to that stage the situation seemea very dangerous. The Japanese were steadily getting into their hands the whole of the railway line, of which they had already held the two terminal points. When this had been achieved the stage would have been set for a further advance west to the Hankow-Canton railway. It was assumed that their plan was to seize the whole of this line. Any grandiose scheme of this kind has been foiled, for the time being at any rate, by the fluid tenacity of Chinese resistanc. A few months ago a new factor carne into the struggle in the presence on the Chinese side of a small but hard-hitting American air force, the former American Volunteer Group, which is now incorporated into the United States Army Air Force. Before its appearance the Japanese had the air to themselves. They could, and did, bomb at will, and could not be bombed in return Now they have to suffer hard knocks

themselves, and have either to accept them or call for air assistance from other parts of their widely-extended fronts, where, as in the Solomons and New Guinea, they are even more badly needed. Even if they are willing to postpone a serious attempt to establish effective control over the whole of eastern China, they cannot alford to neglect this front, which has been and still is a serious drain on their resources. The United Nations can afford to neglect it no more than can the Japanese, for hases on the Chinese mainland will be badly needed when the time comes for a concentric advance upon the whole Japanese position in the Pacific. v