FINAL BATTLE OF WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 August 1942, Page 2

FINAL BATTLE OF WAR

MAY BE FOUGHT ON SHORES OF INDIAN OCEAN IN OPINION OF CHINESE MINISTER. JAPANESE AIMS & HAZARDS. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) NEW YORK. August 21. The “New York Times’’ Chungking correspondent says Dr. Tsaing, Minister without Portfolio, in an exclusive interview, compared the Dieppe raid and the Solomons offensive and said: “China is impressed with the magnitude of the forces and the character of the equipment used in the Dieppe raid, which might well be the beginning of the longhoped for second front—developing from a comparatively modest initial engagement, as did the Solomons battle.’’ Dr. Tsiang added that Mr Churchill and M. Stalin had most certainly discussed the opening of new fronts, but also action to meet the contingency should the Nazis succeed in penetrating the Caucasus, thus opening the way for a drive to the Middle East and India, which would undoubtedly induce the Japanese to precipitate an Indian invasion, with a view to arriving there before th" Germans, while Russians, swarming in from Turkestan, would probably meet the Japanese in India instead of Siberia. Dr. Tsiang believes that the final battle of the global war will be fought on the shores of the Indian Ocean, but is of the opinion that an India drive would be a hazardous venture for the Japanese because of large-scale Allied operations in the Pacific, of which the Solomons battle is an ample foretaste.