Show in heart of southwest pacific pac i ic fight islands there assume strategic role rol X 77 sr yo 0 1 11 id UIA 0 LO 10 C 90 6 AN MA 0 I 1 I 1 IN IA 11 1 0 1 1 J 0 set so k i 0 e 7 1 f tt A 4 va 1 40 4 F t S aa IL 5 0 0 L 1 00 WA I 1 v N I 1 ap r 0 II 11 abw vo a 9 a s ce S A naval bar ps 4 aj U S R V TA k A 1 AINS pa e PROPOSED I 1 1 jq em r mytr lands of allies in far flung war zone As the Yanks Aus dutch and british colonial troops battle fiercely with the japs in the pacific area any news coming out from those various zones is eagerly awaited and read As a result maps atlases and almanacs having anfor motion mation on this pacific war area especially the southwest pacific are being well thumbed today the names and the locations of many of the places mentioned both in the newspapers end and radio dispatches are unfamiliar it not vague to millions of americans many of the hot spots in the southwest pacific are almost hidden on tile the maps they were formerly or merly peaceful slow moving little sections of the world here the weather was at al ways warm and not to hard work even radio commentators and aco ace newsmen in tho united states have been keeping their maps and reference books on the fighting area in the pacific handy for formerly such names as the sulu archipelago chi pelago the shan states sarawak banda and celebes seas marshall and caroline islands were names and seemingly nothing else to them too almost everyone knows something about one or two of the more well known important war centers down there in the fighting zone such ones being singapore manila darwin and batavia but to get a comprehensive understanding or as humanly possible workable 4 idea ol 01 odthe the location of the allies while thrusting and counter thrust ing with their enemy those interested in the southwest pacific news reports are attempting to know more about the important centers of war activity and their location to other centers first in importance to U S war news ro readers aders first in importance tire are the tha philippines these islands not one or two big ones as aa some suppose are over in number the philippines were ceded to the united states alter after the war of 1893 1898 with spain it was remember the maine then as all it Is now remember pearl harbor the importance of the philippines in the war of the western and southwestern pacific is seen in that the east coast of china is but a mere flying distance of only miles but japan proper is northeast of these islands 1600 miles to the southwest Is borneo and sarawak Sa directly south of uie the philippines Is celebes and new guinea Is to the sout southeast these places tire are outlined on the map you can see then why the japanese will have almost full control of that sector it if the strategic philippines Is theirs sugar hemp minerals are the important exports from these islands mindanao and luzon the two largest supply the most here are a few point to point air distances between pacific locations prominent in the news today batavia Ba tavla java to singapore miles to darwin australia 1690 wiles miles I 1 dutch harbor alaska to hono lulu 2295 miles to tokyo 2835 miles south of the philippines Is the C celebes sea now lull full of prowling subs ships of war with crows crews alert and transports of both the aules allies and the japanese here in the celebes sea zone are also thousands of islands as in the philippines on the west edge of the sea is the largest island of the group it contains borneo north borneo and Sa notice on the map how the westernmost western most tip of borneo is on a direct east west line with singapore the same sea that touches the western islands of tho the philippines the sulu sea touches the northern shores of north borneo important strait A short time ago you read about the blasting tho the dutch and the americans gave the japanese fleet when it moved southward through the strait of this strait Is the one which separates the eastern coast of borneo front the celebes islands west coast it la Is through this comparative very narrow neck of water that Is afforded the most direct route from the philippines in the north to the java sea dutch P possessions in the south it is the connecting link between the celebes and the java sea years ago the shrewd dutch Nether netherlanders landers controlled trade between the orient and europe for over a century and a half by dominating shipping through the ar strait when the british took maya malaya which Is tipped at its southern end by singapore this domination by the dutch was ended today both of these nations are fighting side by aide to stop the domination of another empire the celebes an island which you see on the map located between borneo and new guinea an interesting fact about this celebes island is that it is 13 bounded by four different seas on its north is the celebes sea on the south is the flores on the west is the java sea and on the east the like its companion islands down there the exports from here are petroleum copra various minerals hemp and spices now look at the map again note the island that is east by southeast from celebes this elongated east and west island is new guinea like borneo celebes sumatra java and the thousands of other smaller islands in this district new guinea belongs to the dutch the free dutch the western halt ol of new guinea belongs to the dutch but the east ern em halt half belongs to the hard pressed british colonial empire incidental ly this group ol of the dutch west indies islands also called the netherlands indies is the largest in the world someone has said that there is no doubt that natives living on the many inaccessible islands still dont know theres a war going on practically the same exports come from this island that come from the others already mentioned now to move to another island another dutch possession see on the map where it notes dutch east indies in heavy black printing directly above the word indies is the island of java batavia is the capital batavia Da tavia and a further eastern section of java will go down in the war history of the southwest pacific as being sectors in the heart and approximate air miles bombers must fly for business guam to manila 1595 miles to tokyo 1565 miles i 1 0 0 honolulu to san francisco 2395 2393 miles to tokyo nales to sydney australia miles to wake island 2306 miles to panama zone miles manila to singapore 1490 1400 miles to hong kong miles heat of the battle coffee has always been one of the important exports from this island the expression cup of java Is easily understandable if not already fathomed when javas forner former export of excellent coffee bean Is remembered because of the war americans dont expect to have a cup of real java java when the tha present warehouse supply Is gone across a short passage of water to the west of java another strait named sunda Is the embattled island of the dutch called sumatra the island you see on the map just below the word singapore an island on the equator sumatra itself one of cozy little islands 1000 miles long about miles wide that sits astride the equator to get an idea of how far south this island would be below the united states one should remember that the equator which runs through sumatra also pierces peru pent ecuador colombia and bra zil in south america of course there is a difference in climate in the south american republics because of prevailing wind conditions and ocean currents in sumatra the climate is hot and moist tropical diseases there are prevalent and the eastern lowland is plagued by the often fatal malaria which strikes both the natives and europeans an important tact fact the dutch west indies concerns the worldwide world wide hold it has on the quinine market for about 90 per cent of the worlds quinine obtained from the bark of the cinchona tree comes from the islands around the equator when the united states saw trouble brewing in the pacific quinine was placed on the nations list of strategic materials back in the seventeenth century a dose of the powdered bark of the tree called bulna by we the natives from whence comes the word quinine cured the countess of chinchon wife of the viceroy of peru of the malarial fever not so long after that the tree from which the quinine bark was obtained was chono chona tree because an early scientist left out the first h in the word it has been so spelled ever since northeastward across the malac ca on sumatra Is malaya reports of war activity in malaya coming to amer lea ica by newspaper and radio have placed this war slashed land in a prominent spot too singapore is 13 the base that who controls it also controls all movements of ships in the malacca strait between malaya and sumatra control also grants rants a very watchful eye on what boes goes on in the dutch west indies furthermore it gives a view of what is going on up in cie land of india whoever has singapore singapore is at the southern tip off the mainland of malaya north of malaya Is thailand now under the protection so called of japan the nation that fully controls both of these nations also is well able to smash or protect india another angle which makes the control of thene jhc thc e two nations important is that their control means either a protection or destruction of rhina 0 free chinas cainas Ch inas life line the burma road through this article youve gone cone over thousands of miles of water and land in fact youve gone over the most gullung ful lung troubled section of the world at the present time despite dussias Rus sias vast battlefields it does not equal this in extent but maybe so in ferocity troublesome area it is because the little yellow man of the land of the rising sun decided that HE wants to run the show in his alck of tho the woods what the yellow man wants to be nothing else but japanese with complete comell te end and absolute control is marked on the map |