VISIT TO SINGAPORE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 February 1942, Page 3

VISIT TO SINGAPORE

MADE BY GENERAL WAVELL DURING LAST 36 HOURS OF DEFENCE. AMERICAN WAR SECRETARY’S PRAISE. LONDON, February 26. It is revealed in Washington that General Sir Archibald Wavell, Allied Commander-in-Chief in the South-Western • Pacific, was in Singapore during the last 36 hours in which the island was in British hands. He arrived at the climax of the battle and visited all the British positions at. considerable personal risk. Giving this information, the United States Secretary of War, Mr Stimson, said General Wavell had shown himself worthy of the character of the troops he commanded. Mr Stimson revealed also that General Wavell cabled to General MacArthur offering to go to the Batan Peninsula at his own risk, but General MacArthur refused to allow him to do so, stating that his life was too precious to risk. The united Nations, said Mr Stimson, were putting up a magnificent fight for Java and had inflicted appalling losses on the Japanese. When General Wavell was departing from Singapore his plane had a mishap and he suffered a broken rib. He did not allow this injury to take him away from his duties. INDIAN OCEAN VITAL PLACE IN WAR STRATEGY. DEVELOPING AXIS THREAT. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, February 25. President Roosevelt’s warning that the world war must be seen as a whole, and not only,in terms of Russia, Libya, Burma, Java, or any other individual entity in the struggle, is felt in London to be of paramount importance. The Axis Powers are undoubtedly looking at the spring campaign as a ■ complete world picture, and a military expert here has drawn attention to the danger of a junction of the Germans and Japanese through the Nazi military power aiming at a successful break-through in the Caucasus, Persian Gulf and Red Sea, while Japanese submarines and warships sever the Indian Ocean sea routes. In this connection he stresses the vital importance of the Indian Ocean, especially to the Allied operations in the Middle East, where supplies must come up the Persian Gulf as the Medi- ! terranean is closed as a regular route, i “The Indian Ocean,” this expert states, “has become one of the great ■ nerve centres of the war. It is like < a railway junction for ships instead • of trains. The stations which it ■ serves are South Africa, British East Africa, the British armies of the I

Middle East, and Russia, India. Burma, China and Australia.

“Australia, though face to face with the enemy, is part of this Indian Ocean system, and at the same time the terminus of another sea route which runs by way of New Zealand to Hawaii and thence to the United States.”