Evening star., 1943-08-26
Allies Finally to Aid
EmbottIed China
By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.

Inc appointment OF vice Admiral LOro
Louis Mountbatten to the newly created
Inter Allied Southeastern Asia Com
mand is highly significant, both as to
| the approaching activity in that theater
and as to the nature of the operations
to be conducted there.
| Lord Louis has been occupying the
! post of chief of combined operations
amphibious operations in which naval
| forces, air forces and land forces are
combined to strike across water at
enemy positions. We are going to see
such operations on an even greater
| scale than we have seen them already
in the Pacific and in the Mediterranean.
AS Lord Louis has himself written,
IF we look at the map, we find that
| there is no place where United States
or British troops can land to fight the
enemy without the probability of severe
| opposition. They can only be taken there
| In force by seaborne expedition with
air support. They cannot land unless,
| in fact, combined operations are carried
| out"
| The recovery Of Burma, and eventu-
| ally of Malaga and Sumatra, is a case
in point. 1t is an essential operation
| in the prosecution of the war against
| Japan, not only because it is an attack
on the Japanese in an area where their
own communications problem is seri-
ously in their disfavor, but because it
most effectively support our Chinese
Allies.
Our No. priority in the Far
| East right now Is to brace up the
Chinese. They are an essential pillar
Of the United Nations, and they are in
a bad way after seven years of bitter
struggle with the japanese under the
most unfavorable conditions For year
and a half, they have been cut of from
all outside support except such as can
reach them by air over the Himalaya
Mountains-a mere trickle.
To retake Burma will open again a
road into the heart of China. 1t is
not road of great capacity, but the
very fact that it is reopened will mean
definite uplift to the spirit of every
patriotic Chinese. 1t will mean that at
long last something is being done for
China.
The Chinese are very sick of hearing
distant Allied voices chanting: Hold the
fort, for we are coming" They have
held the fort long, long time. 1t is
not too much to say that unless we
do something for them now, something
tangible, something really worthwhile,
we cannot expect them to 60 on hold
ing the fort forever.
That is why the appointment of Lord
Louis Mountbatten to the Southeast
Asia Command is such good news.
Lord Louis Is not man to be sent to
a theater of operations where his talents
will be wasted in inaction. His experience
is exactly what is now needed in south
eastern Asia.
The recovery of Burma is primarily a
task for q great seaborne expedition,
based in all probability on Ceylon. OF
course such move must be supported by
the pressure of jungle troops along the
land frontier, though no large armies
can be supported over the difficult trails
which alone permit passage by land
from India into Burma. Also, it must
be supported by the seizure of advance
air bases, possibly in the vicinity of
Akyab and in the Andaman Islands
But the bulk of the attacking troops
must be conveyed by ship to the Bur-
mese coast near the mouths of the great
rivers which are the real means of ac-
cess into the interior of the country, and
of which the Irrawaddy is the chief.
This means primarily a powerful fleet
and a powerful naval air force in the
Bay of Bengal-a fleet capable of deal
ing with anything the japanese can dare
TO send into those distant waters (and
the Japanese may dare great deal to
keep their hold on Burma. That feet
seems likely to be largely British in
composition, made up from the Mediter-
ranean and home fleets and from new
construction.
The japanese have the advantage of
central position in the Singapore Sur
abaya area, where they can concentrate
a strong naval force ready to move
either toward the Bay of Bengal or to-
ward the Pacific, but they now seem
likely to be caught between two oppos-
ing fleets, the American fleet in the
Pacific and the British in the Bay of
Bengal, either of which is capable of
meeting and defeating the best that
Japan can produce.
If that is So then the Japanese can
go in strength into the Bay of Bengal
only at the risk of serious setbacks in
the Pacific, and with the further risk
that if they are beaten by the British
they will have lost forever their naval
freedom of action in any sea.
Thus, as the period of the southwest
monsoon draws to close, as the naviga-
tional conditions of the Bay of Bengal
improve and the constant hammering of
Allied air power against the japanese
communications in Burma continues.
our Chinese allies can begin to take heart