1940-04-08 — Page 9

Is Deadlock In West About To Be Broken?

FLARE-UP ALONG MAGINOT LINE

LONDON, TO-DAY.

IS THE DEADLOCK ON THE WESTERN FRONT ABOUT TO BE BROKEN BY A VIOLENT OFFEN- SIVE ? That is the question on the lips of all military ob- servers in France, though all hesitate to give a positive answer.

As Reuter's correspondent with the French Army in France says, the increased liveliness, which has been noticeable on the Front in the past two or three weeks is portentous, but whether it is the prelude to sterner action remains to be seen.

NAZIS

of

A very notable intensification artillery action has occurred at the western end of the active front, that is in the region between the Moselle and the Saar, the zone on which the weight

WANT JAPAN strategists believe the main

AS AN ALLY

(SPECIAL TO "CHINA MAIL") Amsterdam, To-day. The German-press continue to publish lengthy articles trying to demonstrate to the German public that German will, at the decisive moment,

of any Nazi attack on the Maginot Line would fall.

as

Probably three or four times many shells are being used

every day now than was the case a month ago,

All observation posts, roads and even villages in No-Man's-Land- for a long time more or less im- mune from destruction-are now receiving unwelcome attention.

SEVERE ENCOUNTERS

CYCLONE

DISASTER IN U.S.

̈(SPECIAL TO "CHINA MAIL").

New Orleans, To-day.

A cyclone has practically de- stroyed the small town of. Amity in Louisana.

The number of victims has not been ascertained.

The Red Cross are carrying out rellef work. Havas.

GRADE 3 MEN TO JOIN ARMY

London, To-day.

READY FOR "BOMBING SEASON"

(SPECIAL TO "CHINA MAIL")

Chungking, To-day. With compulsory evacua- tion well under way, definite steps are being taken for the protection of those who must remain in Chungking during the forthcoming "bombing

season.

"

Civilians are actively participating in the digging programme.

Existing dug-outs can accommodate 220,000, half of the city's population and it is anticipated · that in two months another 100,000 will be pro- vided with shelter.

Throughout the night, explosions of blasting operations can be heard giv- ing the impression of a battle,

The authorities are confident that by May every inhabitant will be pro-

Havas.

vided with shelter.

The men who have been re- gistering for the Colours as a Working parties are more constant-various age groups and who, 64

result of the calling-up of get a precious ally in the per-ly interrupted in their labours various age groups and who, than on being medically examined,

son of Japan “whose aspira- tions are fundamentally iden- tical with those of the Reich.' The Rheiwestphalische Zeitung, in an editorial says "Japan is interested in a German victory and, if it under- stands its true interests, will give us open support."

The Koelnishco Zeitung, dove- loping the same theme, declares that Japan is threatened by United States.

the

in

provocation

"American naval manoeuvres the Pacific, constitute a for Japan. The island empire must look upon these manoeuvres, in the light of Mr. Roosevelt's aggressive po- licy, as a symptom of American de- termination to oppose the formation of a new order in Asia," the paper adds. Havas.

FIRST JAP. MOVE

ON NEW

and

CLIVEDEN”

to have been placed in Grade HOSPITAL

According to the Ministry of Lab-

London, To-day, The first section of the great Can-

have to show more caution all sectors is the formerly. One feature common

increased deter- mination of patrols, both in

their Three, are now to be absorb- attempts to capture prisoners and toed into the Army. obtain information of value.

Encounters between the opposing our the men affected are those who, adian military hospital now in course but for defects in eyesight, would of erection at "Cliveden Lord As- have been placed in Grade One or tor's famous Thames-side seat-will Grade 2A.

be opened in May. Approximately 56,000 men had The hospital will be equipped with been placed in Grade 3 from the 000 beds and all necessary depart- outbreak of war until February 10ments, including a research laboratory and they will probably replace those under the supervision of the Nobel in the higher medical categories who Prize winner, Sir Frederick Banting. are now doing clerical work.-Reuter. -British Wireless.

armies are becoming more severe in scope and effect and the objectives are becoming daily more daring. Reuter.

Five German- Planes : Shot Down Over Lines

London, To-day. munique states:.

The French official evening com-

the region to the west of the Vosges, "There was some artillery fire in There was very considerable activity in the air. Five enemy aeroplanes were brought down, one by the R.A.F"British Wireless.

A

TWO R.A.F. PLANES

CHESSBOARD SHOT DOWN

Tokyo, To-day.

The new Japanese-sponsored gov-

London, To-day

ernment under Wang Ching-wal, as Two British aircraft of the one of its first acts, will declare that Bomber Squadron were shot all treaties and contracts concluded between Chiang Kai-shek's Govern-down, it is feared, in the ment and the Powers are invalid as from March 30, which was the date" when the now regime was established;

Router.

North Sea yesterday.

No details of the circumstances are yet available, beyond the fact that they were engaged in a dog-fight with

*** It is not clear whether this is a German fighting craft. Tokyo announcement of an

order All the known facts are contained in which has just been given to Wang a brief Air Ministry announcement to Ching-wel's new "independent sover-the effect that, "During a patrol over eign government" in Nanking or the North Sea yesterday afternoon, whether it is just "intelligent anti-enemy fighters were encountered. cipation."

CONTROL OF ORES

London; To-day. An order for the control of chrome magnesite and wolfram has been made by the Minister of Supply and, com- ing into force as to part on Monday and for the rest a week later, defines those materials and subjects them to regulation, by a licensing scheme. British Wireless.

"One enemy aircraft was destroyed and at least one other is believed to have been damaged.

"Two British aircraft have failed to return to their base? - Reuter,

RED CROSS FUND RED

London, To-day. The Lord Mayor's Red: Cross Fund: has risen to R1j292,000, showing an increase of £12,000 during last

British Wireless.

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APRIL 8, 1940

STRATEGIC PROBLEMS OF THE NEAR EAST

Nothing that has yet happened in | In New Zealand, and no brilliant vic- the war touches the romance of history like Wolfe's on the Heights of tory at so many points as the sudden Abraham at Quebec adorned the ear- appearance of the Anzacs' transports ly annals of Australia. The British Em- off Suez. We heard nothing of their pire, apart from India and voyage until it was safely ended, and Atrica, is singularly free from mill-

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added, wherever it is at war, we are.

der, "we are." And he might have

The scarred face of Achi Baba over- looks the plains of Troy, a few miles across the Straits, and three thousand years separate the heroes of Homer from the more authentic exploits of Gallipoli on which the Anzacs first won their distinction. However cele- brated the valour of the men who fought at Troy may have been, it may well have been exceeded later by the Anzacs in Gallipoli and the Territorials of Lancashire and Glasgow, not to speak of the 29th Division.

|

|

tarism, and though we have

South

given them whatever military advice was in our power, it is still true that the mill- tary virtues of the Anzacs, perhaps in an even greater degree than those of

tirely home-grown. Perhaps their very distance has made them more depen- dent on their own ideas. Even their easy, swinging stride was learned not

in

of freedom. Sometimes, it may be, their independence of spirit may make difficulties for discipline, but these are amply compensated for by greater re- sourcefullness and obstinacy in action.

the barrack-yard but in the school

In Palestine. the new troops begin where their fathers left off in the last war. Their transference from Egypt is a welcome, if delayed, official recog- nition of the immense strategic impor- tance of Palestine. Egypt protects the Canal against attack from the East; Palestine protects it from the West as well. It is in touch with the oilfields of Mosul, which are brought down to the sea at Haifa by pipe-line, and are invaluable to the British Fleet in the

It

has

a healthy Mediterranean.

a training- climate, and is ideal as ground. It is a better air base than Cyprus or than Egypt, and gives access to parts of the Middle East not easy to reach in any other way. It invites co-operation between the Anzacs and the strong divisions that France main- tains in Syria. It has a hinterland that is capable of immense commercial de- velopment.

NAPOLEON'S DREAM

A TRAGIC MOMENT Not even the wonderful army with which we fought the first. Somme battle in 1918 can have surpassed these Anzacs in the physical vigour and military bearing which Egypt so great- ly admired in them when they re- appeared a few days ago. Not a few of them were veterans, revisiting the scenes of their former exploits, and the others had been preceded by the great reputation that their fathers won for the Anzacs twenty-five years ago. Egypt did not detain them for more than a few hours, and already they

Students of Napoleonic campaigns are encamped in Palestine in quarters that Arab and Jewish labour joined in. will remember his youthful ambition making. That they have crossed the to conquer India by way of Palestine Suez Canal without delay shows how and Haifa. France, under his plan, greatly the British Mandate in Pales-having been bereft of her colonies in tine has altered the military situation the East and West Indies, was to find to our advantage. The Australians ample compensation in Egypt, and may now be encamped near the field Egypt was to be the stepping-stone to Asiatic Turkey, of Megiddo, where Allenby won per- the conquest of haps the most signal victory in the last Mesopotamia, and India. "Thus on the war, and one that was almost aesthetic one side," wrote Napoleon, "Egypt in its perfection.

would replace San Domingo and the Antilles; on the other, it would be a In- the conquest of step towards dia.". Later he said: "If it had not been for Djezzar" (the Turkish com- who successfully defended mander Acre with the assistance of Sir Sydney Smith) "I should have been Emperor of the East."

It is one of the touches of drama in which the military history of the Anzacs abounds, that our friendship to-day with Turkey is based on the most tragic moment of the Gallipoli expedition, when the Anzacs had reached the summit of Sari Bair, which would have given us control of the Straits. At that moment reinforce- No military conception of Napoleon's ments brought up by Ataturk, who was ever quite without substance, and was later to become our close friend, it is, perhaps, not fanciful to regard dislodged us from the crest, and the the presence of the Anzacs in Pales- Gallipoli expedition passed into his-tine as a guarantee against this ghost The from the past, walking again. But it is tory as a magnificent failure. Anzacs crowned it 'with later triumphs. too early yet to forecast with con- The infantry went to France and help- |fidence how these fine troops are likely ed to shatch victory from what began to be employed. That will depend as the disaster of the March offensive. Their mounted men stayed in Pales- tine, and helped to win the great cavalry victory of Megiddo.

HOME GROWN

largely on the development of the enemy's strategy. If Germany, with or without the active assistance of Russia, were to attack the independence of Rumania for the sake of her oilfields, the Anzacs might find themselves once

No nation has ever achieved so great a military reputation in so short amore near their old battlefields in time. Before the last war Australia Turkey, but this time, instead of fight- had no military history. They had lessing their way up the Dardanelles, they experience of war than the fighting would find the way open. The British

(Continued on Page 11) against the Maoris by the early settlers.

By George McManus

Bringing Up Father

MAGGE-1 HAVE A DATE WITH TWO JUDGES- I WAS JUST WONDERING

DON'T. STAND AND-WONDER- YOU KNOW i

WOULDN'T OBJECT TO YOU GOING OUT WITH GENTLEMEN LIKE THAT-

OH-I'M SO HAPPY. TO THINK HEIS OUT WITH MEN

OF THE "JUDICIARY-:

WELL-MR. JIG WHICH ONE DO YOU LIKE BEST?

ALL OF THEM

BY GOLLY YOU'RE A

GOOD JUDGE –

0