JAPANESE AIMS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 June 1942, Page 3

JAPANESE AIMS

4 ACCORDING TO CHINESE SPOKESMAN CONTROL OVER RAILWAYS & AERODROMES. IMPORTANCE OF RESOLUTE RESISTANCE. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, June 29. Japan’s strategy in China is not to knock out the Chinese, but to get control of communications, states Lieuten-ant-Colonel Chin Wang, the Chinese liaison officer at General MacArthur’s 1 headquarters. Colonel Chin has been sent to the South-west Pacific by Generalissimo Chang Kai-shek. “China’s most urgent need,” he said, "is planes—at least 500 bombers with fighter escort.” He said that foreign pilots would also be necessary, since China could not train enough men to meet the demands of all the planes required for victory. Colonel Chin said that the secret road thrown out from China to connect with India as an alternative to the Burma Road was well hidden from the enemy’s eyes, but was tortuous and difficult. A second front in the Far East was more than feasible. China favoured air raids from the Aleutians which, if pressed repeatedly, could make Japan squirm.

The purpose of Japan’s savage incursion into China’s south-east provinces, he said, was three-fold: First, it aimed at controlling more Chinese aerodromes, many of which were situated back from the coast; secondly, Japan hoped to stop the considerable smuggler trade that was going on round Shanghai; and thirdly, Japan hoped to obtain possession of the railway from Shanghai to Changsha. This was tremendously important, since if Japan won the railway she would have a safe land route for the transfer of troops and war materials from her Manchurian bases to the Siberian and Indian fronts.

From the Allies’ point of view, therefore, the importance of the issue in south-eastern China could not be overemphasised. If Japan won her goal the Allied cause would have received a grievous blow.