NEEDED AT ONCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 April 1942, Page 3

NEEDED AT ONCE

AIR REINFORCEMENTS IN BURMA IF OILFIELDS ARE TO BE HELD. EVEN AMERICAN GROUP SHORT OF PLANES. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) LONDON, April 8. The situation in Burma looks serious, because unless air reinforcements arrive very soon, General Alexander may be forced to abandon the oilfields and fail back on Mandalay. The military spokesman in Chungking states that units of the regular United States Air Force have joined the volunteers defending Mandalay. A Scripps Howard Press commentator, in a radio message to New York from Chungking, says that even the American Volunteer Group is now suffering from a shortage of planes and this situation must be overcome in the next few weeks if China is to be held. Two strong columns of Japanese in lorries, supported by tanks, are racing north toward the Burmese oilfields and have already reached the outer.fringe of the oil-bearing area, this correspondent says. The Burma correspondent of the “Daily Herald” says, “If the large air reinforcements which were promised weeks ago by a spokesman at New Delhi are not here swiftly, the consequences will be woeful. If our forces are given air support now they can win this battle. While we wait caravans of homeless people continue to move from the blitzed towns, adding to the large moving population and to the problem of the roads. “The Japanese onslaught is in the air. Defeat that, and I am satisfied the military position can be turned to our advantage and the Battle for Burma won.”