1940-04-15 — Page 26

Monday,

HONGKONG TELEGRAPH

April 15, 1940.

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•

Thongkong Telegraph.

Monday, April 15, 1940. Wyndham St., Hongkong Telephone: 20015

THE proйx "Special to the Telegraph"

bears the indication "01" is received

the Valled Press Associations, who te-

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,

which has fattened him a Httle, that IF you drive out of Stockholm on a

Sunday into the snow of the it will not take long to turn him into countryside you will see groups of soldier again. How to train more Swedes in three-quarter length white cers rapidly is a different propo- sheepskin coats ski-ing through the sition; but even to-day the Swedish Irces. it is particularly impressive offleer compares very favourably with at night, under the lights of the fleld- the Russina.

sport patrols, when, perhaps, u group Modernisation of equipment is be- from a Swedish artillery regimenting debated to-day in the Riksdag. great firm-limbed people with gentle. A motion, for example, lies before Inexpressive faces-ure leading the the House for the mechanisation of rest down the gliding kilometres. On the artillery, including the coastal the ride-range there is the dull spurt

artlery, Sweden, of course, has of musketry; and the headlines of

long made her own guns; to put them Social-Demokraten in the morning will have told you that the workers on wheels or tracks should not pre- party, which two years ago shivered sent her with grave difficulty.

at the sound of a gun, is now demand- My own bellef is that, with her Ing that every worker should handle present war industry and her popu-

one.

North of Stockholm they are hold- ing manoeuvres on a modest scale, of course, which should alarm no- body-to meet a ghostly landing purly with infantry and with 75 mm. and 40mm: A.A. guns.

Gen. Thoernell, commander-in- chief of Sweden's joint defence

Sweden's farflung communications, on

Intion's adaptability to modern machinery, she should be able to re- construct her army quicker than the Russians after their disasters in Fin- land. She may even feel able, if they

fumble much longer, to risk more volunteer life in the defence of Finland than she has done already,

It is simply because of her lack of rained reserves that Sweden has de- liberately given no oficial counter-

is used by the "lfongkong Telegraph" to forces, has appealed to the Govern- Indicate news which is strictly copyright ment to form a Civil Defence Corps, ance, far less an official shove, to the under the provisions of the Telecommunl-armed first with rilles and then with Finland volunteer campaign. cations Ordinance, 1916. Such news as |150)

Hight machine Cune, to protect

Sweden hus no reason to feel the Britain about the Itongkong on the date of publication by the model of the territorial guard of same anxiety as

Finland. One notes an occasional safety of her civil population in time serve all rights and forbid republication, warning in the Press that the Swedes of war. Her A.A. guns are admir-

toughen ither wholly or in part without previousnowbaths (pictures of this Spartan to evacuate only 300,000 people-

themselves with able and numerous. should

She will have

custom are published), and by wallt some 5 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 a Bank Holiday rush. She can dig shelters which will really protect the rest out of her basic granite. Her A.R.P. preparations, in short, are well nd- all-vanced

arrangement

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field.

It is the state of her own air force

܀

of Sweden's peace-time troops 10,000 belong to the permanent cadre. annual contingent, therefore, The varies between 15,000 and 41,000. A small army, one might say, for u

~WEDEN has attempted to construct nation of 6,000,000 which has not only compulsory military service but her own aerial types, but these a military tradition. The explana- have not been outstandingly success- tion 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 not a fighting rate from Russia, easy to-day, when the Great Powers

traditional her only

enemy. She are fighting each other in the foc- nourished hopes until 1938 of per- tories for aerial supremacy and petual peace and universal disarma- America seems remote and unwling ment. Her Government became pro to sell except to the highest bidder. gressively social-democratic and So Sweden's air force is still heteroc- therefore pacifist.

Alte.

FINLAN

IN SWEDEN THEY'RE

READY

in

The Swedes enciously watch events neighbouring Norway. Sweden fears that she may. be drapped into the war and is evacuating border tow718. If war doca

come Sweden ready, as this naval A.A.

gun-team shows.

Munition Routes

To China

What effect has the war in Europe had on the other almost forgotten-war in China? Wilbur Burton, special.com- 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 the 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 desplie the capture of Nanning by the the Japanese, supplies for Chinese armies of General Chiang Kai-shek are still flowing north- ward into Central China from French Indo-China.

in

the

there. ure.

other, though poorer, roads farther west and trade 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 miles west- ward, to take in the smaller side or they must once more

Then the French into banning

transit of military supplies through Indo-China,

French policy on arms shipments has been very erratic. At times military shipments have been al- most completely stopped, and at other times the only question has been the making of proper fnon- cial

arrangements. Lately the trade has been booming and port faculties at Haiphong have been

moment SWEDEN is preparing. She

ing up the gaps in her defences they are not the same gaps. In A.A. that really worries her. The Swedish whose foreign polley is resolutely guns and in the patural power of her air force is compared by Swedes to pacific by conviction as well as 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 by national interest, finds her- better off thaus Britain at the end of uniformily and size, while certainly

1930. Her anxiety is about her not lacking skill. self again face to face with the trained man-power and air-power,

Sweden's peace-time, army varies allowed for a first-line force of about Sweden's latest defence programme imminent threat of armed between 34,000

and 60,000 men,

Shipments over the route from of 250 planes by 1941. In detail, this necording to Holland has done course, it is larger, for certain re-

season. To-day,

the port of Haiphong to Chung- invasion.

consists to-day of seven groups, fouri

king are still moving freely, and serves have been called up. In war of bombardment, two of military or

greater quantities than nothing to provoke this threat. her military authorities calculate that naval co-operation and reconnals-

British shipments through Burma. From the conflict of wills and they can put 400,000 men into the sance, and only one of fighters, The lack of balance here is self-evident,

Although by taking Nanning, the particularly since the Swedes began Japanese have cut the main road interests which has culminated

to tilrk of meeting a possible aerial-up from Indo-China, in the present War, she has

invason.

She has stood severely aloof. 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 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 Reichstag speech after the close annual contingent of recruila. For German, but her fighters are English, seme 10 years she did not summon More subtlety might be read into this of the Polish campaign. Yet to the whole class to the Colours. Even choice than is justified. Who, one day Holland sees German troops to-day her period of training for the might ask, would be so silly as to

Infantry

only 140 days in the year, bomb Germany with Junkers? And and engines of war again being and for the specialist arms no more would it not be better to defend the than 200. Those figures compare air of Sweden with Gloucester massed on her frontier, and other badly with Finland's 12 months and Gladiators, whose powers are B Swedes have fought, and they have

18 months. The longer one stays in mildly secret, than

with Messerch- Scandinavia the more onc realises mitts or Heinkels? The clue lo pro- no aggressive aim. But there Is a indications, too plain to be mis- Finland alone of the northern bably more simple, however, The spirit of military pride in them which understood, that at any moment countries took her defence problem Gladiator's engine behaves incom- recalls the days of Gustavus Adol- purably well in Arctic conditions; so phus and drubbings delivered by the. she may be exposed to the fato

the others were bought in order to Swedish Infantry. preserve the appearance of impar- that recently befell Denmark.

tality. COL. BRATT, Sweden's leading In this situation we have a°

There are other types. But the military expert, has laid his 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- tenen might be envied by most Sweden's defence system. Members so much variety as the smallness of methods but of the meaning of of the Riksdag have tried, and are the Aghter contingent. A motion lies other neutrals. In food she is self-

still trying, to remedy this weakness demanding that another fighter group in order to wage a

before a committee of the Riksdag sufficient. All that she need import war are rub- Hitleriam for all Europe. The of the shortened military service should be formed. It undoubtedly ber, carburants and some special

¡period.

will be but the

'planes must be chemicals and metals, of which she right of nations to live their own

bought first. Until Sweden has at has already laid up certain reserves. certain an- Concurrent with it is lives in peace and security is tiquity of Swedish equipment, which least another Oghter group and its She has miscalcuinted a Hille over can, of course, be tnore 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 fitted bu unwise if she risked conclusions Ing the pinch to-day, but only in a the way which probably does some good, for a war against modern motorised with her great neighbour in

for it. reduces an overhigh standard violent assault, then by the and mechanised forces, though its South.

of domestic comfort. direction is qualitatively the superlor

With the example of Poland be menace of it-by the creation of of the Russian, and could curlly beat

She has within her borders the no risks until she is convinced that, finest iron in the world, and there- a state of tension which quickly the Russion if the anmies fought with fore her, she will in any case take

equal armaments.

If attack threatens, Britain and fore the most desirable raw material becomes Intolerablo in suspend-

'How is Sweden improving her France will engage the bulk of the for armaments. 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 she can mix chrome. She the very kernel of her defence pro- it with Norwegian sights round Stockholm every day,

maker all her own guns and am- ties of the national life and she is quietly calling up reserves and blem.

giving them the training that will fit economy. History proclaims how them for the first shock of war. The

Yet he would be unwise who did munition, even of the most advanced

kinds.

much human freedom

Her reserves in gold, &c., are more rest are being urged by every means not think Sweden strong. After Italy conceivable-short of compulsion, and Turkey she is the most powerful

the non-belligerent States in than £123,000,000, and her payments to Dutch steadfastness and which, still seems to be a long way of

position, re on State loans less than the State phead to learn to use a rifle. Even Europe to-day-by courage; and it is not to bo tually the various: rillo clubs are sources, tradition and the spirit to itself makes out of public enterprise. doubted that the Dutch people bound to be co-ordinated into a na- defend her rights. She does not want The Swedish population, above all,

tional system In which every to fight Germany, but she is deter- is both racially homogeneous

ulmost, which is socially united. It can and will de- will face their present ordeal able-bodied man will participate. mined to do her

more than most people think, to bar fend its interests. The country that with the same high qualities un-

The Swede is physically so sound, the old foe, Russin, on the Finnish attacks Sweden will find that it has since the bitten of more than can be chewed. dimmed.

in spite of a long period of prosperity border. It is 125 years

owes

seriously.

still

and

so overtaxed, that normal trade bas- keen interrupted.

This has all been very profitable to the French, and potentially very dangerous, too.

With the Japanese holding the nearby island of Hainan Indo- China is in bad strategic position.. It has never been garrisoned for assault defence against external and there are virtually no border dafences. Even in normal tliner the French, unlike the British, lacic: a navy adequate for the defence of

their Far Eastern Empire.

The Japanese advance from Pak- hod, on the coast, to Nanning 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 Pakhoi was easy enough, but reaching Nanning so quickly over a none too hospitable terrain was in striking contrast to the failure at Changsha only a few. weeks before...

The Chinese evidently were caught unprepared in on area that. should have been well defended.

In any event, French Indo-Ching Is only one of the three inlets from the world. for Chiang Kai-shek, Another, from the Soviet Union, is beyond Japanese milltary 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 inlet, through. British Burma, la potentially the most, im- portant of all and there is no indicution, that it will be cut off- by either military action or diplo-

macy.

The Japanese diplomatie effort to reach 蒜 beller understanding with Britain has been in progress ever since the European war start-

od.

For their part, the Britids have. made some gestures, too. Here 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 government, 45 a "puppet or a tralior."

on

But the Britlch have put no han on Chinese billingsgate when it la applied to those Chinese who work Toklo's orders in the re- under. almer at Peking or Nanking. Nor 13 thore

Imitation nny

Kal-shek, who, incidentally, has propaganda in behalf of Chiang returned that favour through the- installation of a branch of the British Ministry of Information, bureau at the war, propagonda · Chungking.

There is no Indication whatever · that any British-Japaness under- standing will-curtail the prerent uninterrupted flow of supplies' for- Chiang Kai-shek over the Burma) road,