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Show Washington, D. C. FAR EAST POKER GAME For perspective on the present South Pacific tug-of-war between Japan and Britain, It is well to remember re-member that for years Thailand, then known as Siam, was a pawn in the power game of the bigger nations of the Pacific. In this game the United States had a hand. For years, American financial advisers have been attached at-tached to the Thailand throne, one of them having been Francis Sayre, son-in-law of Woodrow Wilson, now high commissioner of the Philippines. Philip-pines. I He wooed Thailand on many oc-' casions, including the ornate recep-l tion given the former king of Siam, who as "Supreme Arbiter of the Ebb and Flow of the Tide, Brother ( of the Moon, Half Brother of the Sun and Keeper of the Twenty-four Golden Umbrellas," came to Wash-1 lngton In the days of Herbert Hoover and was regally entertained. The British were even more in-) tcrested in the Siamese. British j advisers for a time ran the king-; dom's government, trained its army, supplied the one or two ships j for its navy. But half a dozen years ago the Japanese began preaching the doctrine doc-trine of Asia for the yellow man, and Siam for the Siamese. That was how the name came to be changed to Thailand, a nationalistic token of home rule. Reason for Japan's interest in this small country was not nationalism, but the fact .that a slender finger of land, about as wide as the Isthmus Isth-mus of Panama, called the Isthmus of Kra, is controlled by Thailand. A canal through this isthmus, connecting connect-ing the Indian ocean and the Gulf of Siam, would give a new short route from the Pacific to India, render ren-der Singapore impotent, and cut three days from Die trip between Indo-China and Burma. Such a canal would leave Singapore's Singa-pore's giant guns and expensive naval bases guarding an out-of-date sea highway, almost as unimportant unimpor-tant as the Straits of Magellan after the Panama canal was built. That is one reason the British are ready to fight to keep the Japanese out of Thailand. ! BRITISH INVASION PLANS ! First British plan for an invasion j of the continent (since the start of tha T?itcainnMn?t rnnflirM urn a A landing m Holland. This, it was figured, fig-ured, would get sympathetic support from the Dutch; would create a second sec-ond front requiring Hitler to divert part of his troops and airplanes from the Russian front. The original British idea was to have the United States co-operate in a landing force. This, however, scarcely got beyond the Informal suggestion stage. It was immediately immedi-ately and emphatically vetoed, first, for political reasons; second, because be-cause Roosevelt did not have the power to send troops abroad; third, because of the scarcity of shipping to transport and supply an American Amer-ican army overseas. Since then, none of the proposals for creating a second European front has contemplated any American Amer-ican participation. The second idea discussed was a British attempt through Spain and Portugal. This also scarcely got beyond the discussion stage, because it was figured, first, that the German Ger-man army probably could take over Spain by the time British troops be-I be-I gan to land; second, that even if a foothold could be obtained, a march across the Pyrenees to France would be too difficult The only part which the United States might have played in such a plan was to send food ships with which to help win over the Spanish population. Norway Heavily Fortified. Since then another plan for possible pos-sible British invasion of Norway has been discussed. However, this also is difficult. The Nazis now have 10 , divisions in Norway; more impor- j tant, they have been working fever- ( ishly with characteristic German thoroughness to fortify Norwegian ports and possible invasion points. The chief factor holding back the British, however, has been their lack of armored equipment Although Al-though the British army is about I 2.000.000 strong, only about 750,000 men are fully armed with modern equipment. And the most serious defect in their equipment is the lack of tanks. Vast numbers of tanks were lost by the British at Dunquerque, a loss which has not yet been replenished. And no invasion of the continent could be successful without a powerful pow-erful tank force. Also, despite the strength of the Nazi army on the Russian front, a total of 47 well-equipped German divisions are stationed in western ' Europe. This is approximately 700,000 men. Recent discussion of British aid to Russia has turned to the Near East and a British move from the " Gulf of Persia, through Iran to the Russian oil fields of the Caucasus. These oil fields are one of the chief goals of the Nazi army, and once b Hitler succeeds in taking the uj Ukraine, it would be relatively easy Hi for him to cut off this supply. hi |