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1940.
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The
Hongkong Telegraph.
Monday, April 15, 1940.
Wyndham St., Hongkong, Telephone: 20015
THE prefix "Special to the Telegraph" is used by the "Hongkong Telegraph" to indiente sown which is strictly copyright under the provisions of the Telecommuni cations Ordinancs, 1930. Buch
sewa 2.1
bears the indication "UP" is received in Ilongkang on the date publication by the United Press Associations, who re-
serve all rights and forbid republication, either wholly or in part without previous arrangement.
Holland Looks To
Her Moat
SWEDEN CLOSES
THE GAPS
By GEORGE L. STEER
"Telegraph" Special Correspondent who has visited Sweden to study the danger of war in Scandinavia. In article by Mr. Steer on Sweden's defence problems appeared on Saturday. IF you drive out of Stockholm on n' which has fattened him a little, that Sunday Into the anow of the i will not take long to turn him Into countryside you will see groups of a soldier again. How to train more Swedes in three-quarter length white officers rapidly is a different propo- sheepskin coats ski-ing through. *the sition; but even to-day the Swedish tree. It
is particularly impressive officer compares very favourably with at night, under the lights of the Aeld- the Russian. sport patrols, when, perhaps, a groupi from a Swedish artillery regimenting debated to-day in the Riksdag. - Modernization of equipment is be- great firm-limbed people with gentle. A motion, for example, les before inexpressive faces are leading the House for the mechanisation of rest down the gliding kilometres. On the artillery, including the constal the rifte-range there is the dull spurt artillery. Sweden, of course, of musketry, and the headlines of tong made her own guns; to put them Social-Demokraten in the morning
1139
will have told you that the workers on wheels or trucks thould not pre- party, which two years ago shivered sent her with grave difficulty.
one.
at the sound of a gun, is now demand- My oun belief is that, with her ing, that every worker should handle present war industry and her popu~;
Jatlon's adaptability to modern machinery, she should be ab.e to re- construct her army quicker than the Russians after their disasters in Fin-
North of Stockholm they are hold- Ing manoeuvres-on a modest scale,
of course, which should alarm no- body-to meet a ghostly landing party with Infantry and with 75 mm. and 40mm. A.A. guns.
land. She may even they
feel able, it Iumble much Jonger, to risk more volunteer life in the defence of Finland than she has done already.
Gen. Thoernell, commander-in- chief of Sweden's joint defence trained rescut Sweden has de- It is simplyause of her lack of forces, has appealed to the Govern- liberately go oficial counten- ment to form a Civil Defence Corps, ance, far official shove, to the armed first with rifles and then with Finland vol campaign. light machine
protect guns, to
Sweden's farflung communications, on the model of the territorial guard of same anxiety ns Britain about the Sweden has no reason to feel the
Finland. One notes an occasional safety of her civil population in time warning in the Press that the Swedes of war. Her A.A. guns are admir should toughen themselves with able and numerous. She will have snowbaths (pictures of this Spartan to evacuate only 300,000 peopic- custom ore published), and by, walk- some per cent. of her population- ing upstairs to their offices instead and the process will be simple.
the of taking the lift.
mood no more than that of Bank Holiday rush. She can dig shelters which will really protect the rest out of her basic granite. Her AR.P.| preparations, in short, are well ad- vanced.
S
#
WEDEN is preparing. She is fill
ing up the gaps in her defences as Britain did after Munich. But It is the state of her own air force they are not the same gaps. In A.A. that really worries her. The Swedish guns and in the natural power of her air force is compared by Swedes to capital both to evacuate and to re- the Finnish as it was at the outbreak sist air attack, she is proportionately of the northern war. It lacks both better off than Britain at the end of uniformity and size, while certainly 1938. Her anxiety is about her not lacking skill... trained man-power and air-power,
Sweden's latest defence programme Sweden's peace-time army varies
allowed for a first-line force of about and G0,000 men, between 34,000
season. To-day, of 250 planes by 1941. In detail, this according to course, it is larger, for certain re- consists to-day of seven groups, four serves have been called up. In war of bombardment, two of military or her military authorities calculate that naval co-operation and
reconnais- Geld.
can put 100,000 men into the sance, and only one of fighters. The they
lack of balance here is self-evident, particularly since the Swedes. began to think of meeting a possible aerial Invason.
Or Sweden's peace-time troops 19,000 belong to the permanent cadre. The annual contingent, therefore, varies between 15,000 and 41,000. A one might say, for a small army, nation of 6,000,000 which has not WEDEN has attempted to construct only compulsory military service but her own aerial types, but these a military tradition. The explana have not been outstandingly success- Alon is
is Sweden's post-war history, ful. She must still buy her first She was separated by a strenuous line from abroad. And that is not if not a fighting race from Russia, easy to-day, when the Great Powers her only traditional enemy. She are fighting each other in the fac- nourished hopes until 1930 of per- tories for aerial supremacy
and petual peace and universal disarmo America seems remote and unwilling ment. Her Government became pro- to sell except to the highest bidder,
social-democratie gressively
and So Sweden's air force is still heteroc- therefore pacifist.
Vite.
FINLAND
IN SWEDEN
THEY'RE
READY
The Swadas anxiously watch events in neighbouring Norway. Sweden fears that he may be dragged into the war and is evacuating border towns, if wor docs come Sweden ready, as this naval A.A. gun-team shotos.
Munition Routes
To China
What effect has the war in Europe had on the other almost forgotten-war in China? Wilbur Burton, special cor- respondent of the New York Post, has written this article.
He points out that, despite the fall of Nanning, supplies for the Chinese army still flow in from French Indo-China, from British Burma, and from Russia, He tells to-day' what, tho Japanese must do in order to close the French route, and why they probably cannot close the Burma road. Despite the war in Europe and despite the capture of Nanning by the Japanese, supplies for the Chinese armies of General Chiang Kai-shelt are still flowing north-
ward into Central China from French Indo-China.
Shipments over the route from the port of Haiphong to Chung- king are still moving freely, and in greater quantities than the British shipments through Burma.-
Although by taking Nanning, the Japanese have cut, the main road up from Indo-China, there are other, though poorer, roads farther west and traffic in vast quantities has already been diverted to them.
Two Courses Open
To sever the Indo-China, supply Line completely the Japanese must do one of two things. Either they must extend their military control more than a hundred mics west- ward, to take in the smaller side roads, or they must once more frighten the French into banning transit of military supplies through Indo-China,
At the present moment Holland, a proclaimed neutral, whose foreign policy is resolutely pacific by conviction as well as by national intereat, finds her- self again face to face with the imminent threat of armed invasion. Holland has done nothing to provoke this threat, From the conflict of wills and interests which has culminated in the present War, she has stood severely aloof. She has not even expressed sympathy with one side or the other. Such a well-intentioned intervention could hardly excite resentment. It could not reasonably make a breach in that "traditional Ger- man friendship with Holland". which Hitler proclaimed in his Reichstag speech after the close of the Polish campaign. Yet to day Holland sees German troops and engines of war again being massed on her frontier, and other indications, too plain to be mis- understood, that at any moment she may be exposed to the fate that recently befell Denmark.
In this situation we have a military expert, has laid his OL. BRATT, Sweden's lending vivid illustration not only of the finger on this cardinal weakness in weakness of Sweden's aviation is not WEDEN'S natural posture for de- Sweden's defence system. Members much variety as the emaliness of fence might be envied by most methods but of the meaning of of the Riksdag have tried, and are the fighter contingent. A motion lies other neutrals. In food she is self- still trying, to remedy this weakness before a committee of the Riksdag suficient. All that she need import war are rub- Hitlerism for all Europe. The of the shortened military service demanding that another fighter group in order to wage a
should be formed. It undoubtedly ber, carburants and some special i period.
will
be-but the planes must be chemicals and metals, of which she right of nations to live their own
Concurrent with it is a certain an- bought first. Until Sweden has al has already laid up certain reserver. lives in peace and security is tiquity of Swedish equipment, which least another fighter group and its She has miscalculated a little over tan, of course, be more rapidly re- personnel are fully trained she would coke and coal, It is true, and is feel- denied, if not by direct and medied. The army is not yet fited be unwise if she risked conclusions ing the pinch to-day, but only in a grent neighbour In the way which probably does some good, for a war against modern motorised with her and mechanized forces, though its South.
for It reduces an overhigh standard of domestle comfort. direction is qualitatively the superior
French policy on arms shipments has has been very erratic. Ai Umes military shipments have been al- most completely stopped, and at other times the only question han been the making of proper finan- dial arrangements. Lately the trade has been booming and port facilities at Haiphong have been
She saved on equipment and money Perhaps she had planned i diplo- that might have paid for her full matically. Many of her bombers are annual contingent of recruits. For German, but her fighters are English. some 10 years she did not summon More subtlety might be read into this the whole class to the Colours. Even choice than is justified. Who, one to-day her period of training for the might ask, would be so silly as to infantry is only 140 days in the year, bomb Germany with Junkers? And and for the specialist arms no more would it not be better to defend the than 200. Those figures compare air of
Gloucester Sweden with badly with Finland's 12 months and Gladiators, whose powers are still 18 months. The longer one stays in mildly secret, than with Messerch- Swedes have fought, and they have But there is n more one realises mitts or Heinkels? The clue is pro- no aggressive nlm. Scandinavia the that Finland alone of the northern bably more simple, however. The spirit of military pride in them which countries took her defence problem Gladiator's engine behaves incom- recalls the days of Gustavus Adol éeriously...
parably well. fin. Arctic conditions; so phus and drubbings delivered by the the others were bought. in order to Swedish infantry." preserve the appearance of impar- tiality.
of the fursion, and could easily beat
equal armaments.
There are other types. But the
violent assault, then by the
With the example of Poland be- menace of It-by the creation of
She has within her borders the a state of tension which quickly the Russian if the arrales fought with for her, she will in any case lake
no risks until she is convinced that, finest iron in the world, and there- if attack threatens, Britnin and fore the most desirable raw material becomes intolerable in suspend-
How Is Sweden improving her France will engage the bulk of the for artnaments. By the process of ing or dislocating all the activi-army? The answer is visible in the German forces in the West. That is Northern collaboration the can mix chrome, Sho sights round Stockholm every day, the very kernel of her defence pro- it with Norwegian tics of the national Hfe and She is quietly calling up reserves and blem.
makes all her own guns and am- munition, even of the most advanced giving them the training that will at economy. History proclaims how them for the first shock of war. The
Yet he would be unwise who did kinds.
much human freedom
rest are being urged by every means not think Sweden strong. After Italy owes
conceivable-ahort ol compulsion, and Turkey she is the most powerful Her reserves in gold, &c., are more non-belligerent States, in than £125,000,000, and her payments to Dutch steadfastness and which still seems to be a long way of the
re on State loans less than the State ahend-to learn to use a rifle. Even- Europe to-day-by position, courage; and it is not to bo tually the various rifle clubs are sources, tradition and the spirit to strelf makes out of public enterprise. doubted that the Dutch people bound to be co-ordinated into a nn- defend her rights. She does not want The Swedish population, above all, tional system in which every to fight Germany, but she is deter- la both racially homogeneous and will face their present ordeal able-bodied man will participate. mined to do her utmost, which is socially united. It can and will de- more than most people think, to bar fend is interests. The country that with the same high qualities un-
The Swede is physically so sound, the old foe, Russia, of the Finnish attacks Sweden will and that it has dimmed.
In spite of a long period of prosperity border. It is 120 years since the bitten off more than can be chewed.
so overtaxed that normal trade has been interrupted.......
This has all been very prólitablo- to the French, and potentially very dangerous, too.
With the Japanese holding, the nearby island of Hainan, · Indo- China is in bad strategie position... It has never been garrisoned for defence against extemal amault and there are, virtually no border defences. Even in normal times, the French, unlike the British, lack. a navy adequate for the detenca.of. their Far Eastern Empire.
The Japanese advance from Pak- hot, on the coast, to Nenning.in- volved only a limited number of troops, not more than 40,000, most- ly withdrawn from the area around. Canton and Hongkong.
In view of Japanese naval strength, taking Pakhol was 'cásy enough, but reaching Nanning so- quickly over a none too hospitablo terrain was in striking contrast to the failure at Changsha only a few: weeks before.
The Chinese evidently wero caught unprepared in an area that should have been well defended.
In any event, French Indo-China:" is only one of the threo inlets from the world for Chiang Kai-shċk Another, from the Soviet Union, is beyond Japanese military power to sever in the near future, but: what may happen diplomatically on this front is another question that right now can't be answered.
The third Inket, through British Burma, is potentially the most, Imbr .. portant of all and there is no Indication that it will be cut off... by either military action or diplo
mary,
The Japanese diplomatic effort: to reach n better understanding with Britain has been in progres- ever since the European war start-
cd,
For their part, the British have made some gestures, too. Hero in Hongkong, for instance, the British censors will no longer allow the Chinese press to refer to Japan as "the enemy," nor to Wang Ching- wel, potential head of a new government, as a "puppet or n tralter."
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But the British have put. no ban on Chinese billingegate when it is applied to those Chinese who work under Tokio's orders in the re
nk Rimes Peking or Nanking. Nor there any limitation 012 propaganda in behalf of
Chiong Kal-shel, who, incidentally, has returned that favour through the installation of n branch of the British Ministry of Information, the war propaganda bureau Chungking.
There is no Indication whatever. that any British-Joronese unders standing will curtail the present. uninterrunted flove óf supplies for· Ch'ang Kai-shek over the Burma. road.
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