NEW RIVER LINE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 February 1942, Page 3

NEW RIVER LINE

OCCUPIED BY OUR FORCES IN BURMA TWENTY MILES WEST OF SALWEEN. NO ENEMY INTERFERENCE WITH WITHDRAWAL. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, February 17. It is officially announced from Rangoon that the Imperial forces have taken up positions on the line of the Bilin River, which is about 20 miles west of the Salween River and runs roughly parallel with it, entering near the head of the Gulf of Martaban. This withdrawal brings the Japanese to within 55 miles of Pegu, through which., the railway runs to the Burma Road.' The new line is 80 miles east of Rangoon and 105 miles by the land route. There was no enemy interference with our withdrawal. CRASS INEPTITUDE IN DEFENCE OF MALAYA ALLEGED BY BRITISH CORRESPONDENT. i COMPLACENT BUREAUCRACY. & FIFTH COLUMNISTS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 10.15 a.m.) LONDON, February 17. Asserting that the loss of Singapore was due, at least partly, to bureucracy complacency and a legion of fifth columnists, the British United Press representative, Mr Harold Guard, who is now in Batavia, recalls that he wrote a story on April 18, 1941, quoting military authorities as saying that the Malayan jungle did not offer sufficient protection against enemy infiltration. “The censor passed it,” he adds, “but said it was so absurd that it made the British United Press look ridiculous. During the next four months, natives who had a grudge against the British showed the Japanese paths through the jungle thickets. I followed the battle down the Malayan Peninsula and saw fifth columnists swarming through the jungle. I believe that in December the natives might have been rallied, but it did not happen. The Battle of Malaya, as reported officially, might give the impression that it was a bitter, hard-fought and planned defence. Actually it was a retreat, improvised from day to day.”