GRAND OFFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 February 1942, Page 3

GRAND OFFENSIVE

JAPANESE PREPARATIONS IN BURMA

ADDITIONAL FORCES THRPWN IN, MENACE FROM INDO-CHINA. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, February 17. A military spokesman in Chungking today said that a large number of Chinese troops are being continuously moved to bolster up the defences in Burma. The Japanese High Command, he added, is apparently making extensive preparations for a grand offensive against Burma. Thirty thousand Japanese troops were landed at the port of Haiphon in north Indo-China on February 5. Already two divisions of Japanese are in Burma, and more are now available from Malaya. The Rangoon correspondent of the “Daily Express” says that the landing of the fbrce at Haiphong constitutes a grave new threat to Burma. It can be assumed that the Japanese troops are by now in positions to attack the railway that runs from north IndoChina for 160 miles. The first major action by the Chinese in defence of the Burma Road seems to be imminent. Marshal Chiang Kai-shek’s forces are not unprepared, as the Chinese have been concentrating in Yunnan Province ever since the Japanese seized Indo-China last July. While this army is pushing toward Yunnan another is likely to reinforce the Japanese at the Bilin River in Burma, the correspondent says. The Rangoon correspondent of “The Times” says a military observer has revealed that European officers on several occasions were seen accompanying the Japanese in south-east Burma.