Evening star., 1941-08-08
lv CONsTANTINE Drown.

VOkG klA8 W0tA tAAeb AAVAsAACh viz
United States nor Great Britain
IL hluh,ng or making empty
threats which they could not
carry through II Toxic insists in
putting into effect its own
'Lebensraum" policies.
The forces gathered 70 far by
the United States and Great
Britain in the South Pacific are
such that they could meet the
japanese without fear of 4
check.
While it is true that the Jap.
anese have more planes than the
other nations in the Pacific area,
there Is 4 great discrepancy in
their quality. Only . few up-to-
date models are available to the
: japanese air force. Most of their
planes-even the most recent,
ones -- are patterned after the
1899 types, much slower than
the latest American and British
bombers and fighters. In avia-
ton, quality often takes prece-
dence over quantity.
Although the Japanese have
allowed the news to get out that
they have only $4,000 men in
Southern Indo- China, 1t Is be-
lieved here that this figure
should be multiplied by three in
order to obtain an approximate
idea Of japanese strength In
that former French colony.
But here again the Japanese
are ut . disadvantage since they
are likely to face wen-trained
British troops supported by the
most modern kind of war equip
lhent which has been pouring
into Singapore and the Malay
states for almost . year.
New Bases Discounted.
Ordinarily military men figure
that an army taking the Often
sive must have three to one
superiority. While the British do
not allow any information re-
sardins their military strength
to leak out, 1t is safe to say that
the japanese must have over
10000 well-trained and equipped
men If they want to tackle Thai
and Singapore successfully. While
1t would be 4 mistake from q
naval standpoint to underesti-
mate the japanese ships and
personnel. they are given little
chance at the present time of
deploying their feet successfully.
The new naval bases Japan
has acquired in Indo-China
could be seriously damaging to
the United States and Great
Britain-were they completed.
But the French have been slow
in developing the bases and while
the Japanese have taken over
excellent sites, much work must
be done before they could be
called naval bases in the real
meaning Of the word. None Of
them equals Singapore. The
Japanese themselves admit that
the quality Of the American and
British navies is superior to their
own.
The military potential Of the
western' nations seems to have
been recognized By Thailand. The
Bangkok government, which WAS
ready to yield to Japan no longer
than two weeks ago, has now
changed its tune and is declared
ready to defend its independence.
OF course the Thai forces are
negligible, but the government
has been definitely assured by
London that If it is attacked by
the Japanese the British Navy
and aviation would come to its
rescue Immediately. The British
in turn. feel that the substaqtial
American naval forces now pres
ent in the South Pacific will not
remain idle If shooting starts in
the region.
In the meantime, according to
reports from Toxic. the Germans
are pressing the government to
20 ahead with its plans. The
spectacular Mani description Of
Russian losses in seven weeks of
war was intended to convince the