| Show Washington Strategists Foresee Jap Offensive on Australia I I By JOHN JOliN M. M HIGHTOWER WASHINGTON March 6 UP Jp-A Jp A powerful drive against Australia designed to knock out the Darwin naval base and envelope envelope en en- the whole north coast of the continent was predicted ed here Friday as Japans Japan's next move m in her lightning campaign t to dominate dominate dom dom- the entire southwest Pacific Pacific Pa Pa- before the united nations can hope to take the offensive At the same time military and naval experts said it was probable that the drive into Burma would be intensified in line with the apparent apparent ap ap- parent Japanese strategy of trying trying try try- ing to close the Burma road to China permanently and also place strong forces in position for an invasion of India Thus as the third month of the war ended qualified observers here found scant excuse for any optimism in the whole vast theater of Pacific Asiatic operations and the general belief was that barring some surprise action on the part of the allies the disastrous se ie sequence quence of events which started at Pearl Harbor December 7 must be expected to continue in the immediate im immediate im- im mediate future It was noted however that the I Inot pattern of war the world over ove was not one of unrelieved gloom In In Inthe the British isles s where fresh thousands thousands thou thou- sands of American troops landed this week in Washington and even in embattled Java indications were that some sort of allied counteraction counteraction coun coun- was in the making The Russian offensive against the once undefeated German army continued to press slowly westward westward west west- ward in the greatest achievement of allied arms to date The United States navy in spite of its preoccupation with the world wide task of keeping supply supply sup sup- ply lines open and boat U-boat raiders in the Atlantic had so far recovered from the blow at Pearl i Harbor that it was extending its operations in the central Pacific I deep into Japans Japan's mandated islands area Few informed persons here held I any hope that the defenders of Java could long endure under the heavy pounding of f Japanese land and air forces Reasons for Attack Strategists said the Japanese would have to attack Australia for two reasons First to prevent the harassing of their Dutch East Indies Indies In In- dies supply lines by light naval forces and planes operating out of Darwin and second to set up bases from which to oppose any allied offensive moving up from southern Australia and New Zealand Zea Zea- landIn land In many respects the battle for Burma and after that for India was viewed here as involving much more serious consequences The Burma road has been closed A much longer and more difficult route starting at Calcutta India could be lost should the Japanese succeed in driving very deeply into India The only remaining route then would be through Russia |
