JAPAN’S AGGRESSION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 January 1942, Page 4

JAPAN’S AGGRESSION

GREAT BRITAIN UNABLE TO ACT POSITION IN THE FAR EAST. MR CHURCHILL'S SURVEY. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 12.35 p.m.) RUGBY. January 29. Mr Churchill, speaking in the House of Commons in regard to Malaya and (he Far East, said: "I take full responsibility for the broad strategical position but that does not mean that scandal’s, inefficiency or misbehaviour of functionaries at particular moments in particular places, occurring on the spot will not be probed and that they will be covered by the general support I give our commanders in the field.” °Mr Churchill emphasised the position as the result of the temporary loss of sea power, and the fact that before the defeat, at Pearl Harbour the British ability to defend Malaya was seriously prejudiced by the incursions of the Japanese into Indo-China and the steady building up of very powerful forced and bases there. At the time he went to meet President Roosevelt in Newfoundland, an invasion of Siam seemed to be imminent. It was due to the measures that the President took and the result of that conversation that the attack was staved off so long. “In ordinary circumstances." he said, “if we had not been engaged to the last ounce in Europe and the Nile Valley we should ourselves have confronted Japanese aggression into Indo-China with the strongest possible resistance from the moment they began to build up a large military air power there but we never had power enough to fight Germany, Italy and Japan singlehanded at the same time. Vie therefore had to watch the march of events with anxiety which increased with the growth of Japanese concentrations and at the same time diminished with the continuous approach of the United States to the confines of war but in the interval it could not be supposed that endless discussions and consultations had not been held and contact not been maintained with Australia, New Zealand and the United States to a lesser degree.”

Referring to aid to Russia, Mr Churchill said: "Part of that aid would —I will not say saved us —but would have made us far better prepared in Burma and Malaya.” Mr Churchill dealt with successful offensives in the Western Desert and said if a third Libyan campaign was necessary there was no reason why it should not retain its unprofitable character.