JAPANESE DRIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 February 1942, Page 4

JAPANESE DRIVE

DEVELOPMENTS ON BURMA FRONT Allied Railway Communications Menaced CRITICAL TONE TAKEN IN RANGOON PROMISE OF REINFORCEMENTS NOTED (By Telegraph. —Press Association. —Copyright.) Received This Day, 12.15 p.m.) LONDON, February 16. Japanese motorised units, tanks and infantry are pouring 1 over the marshy ricefields on the coast in an all-out drive to capture the key railway town of Thaton, says the “Daily Express’’ Rangoon correspondent. If the Japanese capture Thaton, they will cut the railway ccmmuniation between Rangoon and the Allied troops driven out of Martaban. It is officially admitted in Rangoon tonight that the British lines have been broken at several points. While the American promise of reinforcements is noted in Rangoon with satisfaction, there is a tendency to point out that Washington and London have only just discovered the importance of the defence of Burma, whereas the Burmese always suspected that the Japanese were able to attack Burma and have not made the mistake of underestimating their strength. The Burmese Press criticises Army communiques "which cloak operations in obscure language.