NEWS OF THE WEEK
THE two main objectives of the Japanese at the present stage are Java and Burma. The former is the centre of Allied resistance for the whole ABCD region, and the latter is a stepping-stone to India and the normal approach to the Burma supply road to China. Chinese forces are operating in the north of Burma, but they are some four hundred miles away from the severely tried British army which has been driven back from the Bilin river and at the moment of writing is standing on the Satang river, the last good defence-line guarding the approaches to Rangoon and the railway to Mandalay. Here the British are not without air-support, but the enemy attacks have been power- ful, and there are signs that Japanese troops are being moved Up from Singapore to strengthen them. The civilians of Rangoon have been evacuated, but there should not be too much talk of Rangoon proving another Tobruk. It is not a fortified city, and the British cannot count upon controlling the sea approaches. Jipanese air-superiority is less marked here than elsewhere, but the best defence of Rangoon is on the Sittang river, where the troops are now heavily engaged. Farther south in the Java region the Japanese show signs of taking all the measures pre- rimmarY to a mass attack. They control the airfields in Sumatra, Borneo, the Celebes, and even in Bali, though American and Dutch aircraft and warships struck a smashing blow at the transports and- their escort which had taken the invaders to that island. Japanese bombers are making intensive attacks on the Javanese aerodromes in the hope ot knocking them out before they make their final assault, but they are by no means having It all their own way. The enemy will find in Java the toughest proposition they have yet had to face.
