FIERCE FIGHTING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 February 1942, Page 4

FIERCE FIGHTING

ROUND SINGAPORE RESERVOIRS THESE STILL IN BRITISH HANDS. TOUGH DEFENCE AMAZES JAPANESE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) ’ (Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) LONDON, February 13. Fierce fighting continued in Singapore today, with little change in the position, announced the Malayan Broadcasting Commission on the island. Our artillery has been extremely active, shelling enemy positions with considerable success. A high rq,te of fire has been maintained. The main fighting has taken place around the reservoirs, which are still in our hands. The enemy is using the Johore causeway to bring up tanks and heavy artillery. Japanese broadcasts heard in Singapore state that the British troops are fighting more stubbornly than at any time throughout the Malayan campaign. Japanese militarists are amazed by the sheer, superhuman sense of duty of the British commanders in Singapore in refusing to surrender. The Japanese admit that they are still at some distance from the city limits. Thousands of evacuees from Singapore arrived in Batavia today. They said they had not seen the sky over Singapore for eight days, because of incessant bombing.

DEFENCE OF JAVA VITAL TO THE SECURITY OF MALAYA ACCORDING TO MALAYAN COMMENTATOR. INITIAL NEED OF AIRCRAFT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—(Received This Day, 12.45 p.m.) BATAVIA, February 13. “If the Allies allow the Indies to become another Malaya, nothing can save Australia from direct attack within a matter of weeks,” said Mr Robert Allington, the Malayan Broadcasting Commission's news commentator, who has arrived from Singapore. “There is no menace to Australia until Java falls,” he added. “Java is to Australia what Singapoi’e has been to Java. The danger is that Australians won’t see through the Japanese smokescreen and that their attention will be concentrated on New Guinea, the Bismarck Archipelago and Timor, to the exclusion of Java. Holding Java would shorten the Pacific war by two years. Java can be defended if fighters ana bombers arrive in time. Manpower is also needed, but aircraft must come first. At no time did the Japanese in Malaya have a superiority exceeding twenty per cent. The trouble, was that they made it 500 per cent in vital spots. A hundred and fifty modern fighters and a hundred more bombers probably would have saved Malaya. Large numbers would be needed for Java, but the problem essentially is the same.”