MOVING SOUTH

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 February 1942, Page 3

MOVING SOUTH

STRONG JAPANESE FORCES IN CHINA PREPARATIONS FOR DRIVE INTO BURMA. CHINESE SPOKESMAN’S SURVEY. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) CHUNGKING, February 3. An official spokesman said that in the past 10 days the east China railways have been busily moving Japanese troops from Inner Mongolia and north China to the port of Tsingtao, where several divisions are concentrated awaiting transport. He added that an enormous number of Japanese troops, including tank and artillery divisions, have been concentrated in the Shanghai area. An army spokesman revealed that a huge Japanese convoy of 69 ships, comprising 41 warships and transports and carrying an entire division, has been sighted steaming south of Formosa Strait. The spokesman said the Japanese were making thorough preparations for a drive into Burma from northern Thailand. The Japanese would concentrate at Chiengmai. The Government spokesman said that Chinese troops in Burma would soon make contact with the Japanese. He expressed satisfaction at the recent reassurances of Messrs Churchill and Roosevelt and Colonel Knox about the realisation of the importance of the Pacific front, and expressed the opinion that even if the united nations took a year to drive out the Japanese from the strategic bases, China could easily ride the storm. [ “We have enough American arms ;and equipment to tax our transportation to capacity at least for a year,” he said. NAVAL BATTALION FIGHTING IN THE BATAN PENINSULA. WASHINGTON,- February 3. A Navy Department communique announces that a battalion of United States bluejackets and marines has been organised and is fighting in the Batan Peninsula under General MacArthur’s command. Clarifying this communique, the Associated Press says that later informa-

tion indicated that the navy men are not a new force which was sent to the Philippines from the outside, but have been made up from the forces already in the Philippines. The first impression from the communique, the agency said, was that reinforcements had actually succeeded in reaching the peninsula from the outside. The American United Press said that the Navy Department refused to enlarge upon the communique, but it appeared likely that the men did not come from the outside.