JAPANESE HOPES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 8 November 1941, Page 6

JAPANESE HOPES

OF CLOSING BURMA ROAD THREATS OF MILITARY ACTION. AGAINST CHINESE IN HUNNAN. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) TOKIO, November 7. The Japanese army hoped that the Burma Road to China would be closed to traffic as a result of Mr. Kurusu’s Washington mission, thus obviating military action against China’s last lifeline, said a spokesman at the Akiyama press conference. The army had refrained from attacking Yunnan provinnce, not only because of the difficulties, but also because it was hoped that supplies to Chungking would be halted by diplomatic action. Chinese forces were massing inside the ■ province frontier and the Japanese would counter-attack if they moved. The Japanese Army was invincible and there was no place in East Asia it could not go to if necessary.

LARGE FORCE

NEEDED FOR INVASION OF YUNNAN. SIGNIFICANT JAPANESE PREPARATIONS. (Reccivd Thise Day, 12.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, November 7. Military sources in Shanghai revealed that 12,000 Japanese troops were disembarked at Haiphong on Wednesday, says the Associated Press of America’s correspondent. In the opinion of military sources an invasion of Yunnan is unlikely, as it would require at lease 100,000 troops. Despatches from Hanoi report that the Japanese are speeding the construction of aerodromes. Japanese officers have asked the Hanoi authorities for extensive hospital accommodation.