JAPANESE IN MANILA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 January 1942, Page 3

JAPANESE IN MANILA

CAVITE BASE ALSO EVACUATED BY AMERICANS

STRONG POSITIONS STILL HELD BY DEFENDING FORCES

RENEWED ACTIVITY

ON THE PERAK FRONT. BRITISH & ENEMY AIR RAIDING. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.20 a.m.) RUGBY, January 2. A Far East war communique issued at Singapore states: "There has been renewed activity in Perak, both on the main front and with enemy parties who landed in Lower Perak. Fighting continues. “There has been little to report from Kuantan. Our patrols have been active and our artillery has engaged enemy targets. of the Far East Command carried out an attack on an enemyoccupied aerodrome at Kong Kedah during last night. Bombs were dropped from a low altitude and were observed to burst on runways and amongst enemy aircraft, two of which caught fire. Other fires were burning in the same area when our aircraft left the target. In addition to bombing the aerodrome our aircraft also raked it with machine-gun fire. “Enemy aircraft attacked targets on Singapore Island last night. The damage done was slight and there were no casualties.”. KUANTAN AERODROME HELD BY BRITISH TROOPS. BOMBING OF JAPANESE AIR BASE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, January 2. The latest messages from Malaya indicate that fighting continues at Kuantan, on the east coast of the peninsula, 180 miles from Singapore. The_. aerodrome is still held by British troops. Singapore messages express satisfaction at the repeated bombing of Sufigei Patani, in Kedah Province, the main Japanese air base in Malay, and at increased air operations against the Japanese communications. Darwin, with a two-hour alert, had its second air-raid warning of the war early today. No planes came over. SHARP CRITICISM “PRAVDA” ON PHILIPPINES’ DEFENCE. TALK OF PETAIN TACTICS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) MOSCOW, January 1. The newspaper “Pravda” (official organ of the Communist Party of the Soviet. Union) in a leading article sharply criticises the conduct of the Philippines campaign, especially the tactics of Manila, saying, certain tactics are being used to defend Manila. The failure to transform the city into a Tobruk, a Leningrad, or Moscow constitutes an act of cowardice. “Manila as an open city is comparable with the defenceless lady bug Which rolls over on her back, sticking her legs into the air when an enemy appears. She cannot be blamed, because Nature does not give her horns, stings or a brave heart. But what can be said of an armed man who lies down on his back as soon as an enemy appears? Such people are called cowards. This also applies to a nation imitating a lady bug, or to an individual city dignifying the position of the lady bug with the high-sounding name of an ‘open city.’ “Manila has been thus declared an open city. Manila is not defending itself. Manila is not the first city which lay on its back. When Hitler’s hordes approached Paris, Petain took up the position of the lady bug, but this did not save Paris from humiliation. “Manila could have resisted the enemy like Leningrad, Sebastopol, Moscow and Tula. It could have withstood a siege like Tobruk. The hardships and misery would have been abundantly compensated for by the glory to the people and the exhaustion of the enemy’s forces.”

This “Pravda” leader is written by the chief leader-writer, M. Zazlavsky.