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Show Holding Dutch East Indies Is Vital to United Nations Crescent of Islands Blocks Jap Aggression By Forming Barrier Between Continents Of Asia and Australia1. ' h : rmiii, mi. m-tm. , By BAUKIIAGE National Farm and Home Hour Commentator, needs are not so pressing, but tanks will soon be rolling to the tune of a thousand a month, and Garand rifles for next year's army of seven million men are being turned out a thousand a day at the Springfield arsenal alone. Meanwhile, the men on the fighting fight-ing front say this to America and England: "Hurry. Cut red tape. .Take risks. Don't wait until you have had what you think is enough. Send what you have, risk it. We'll risk our lives to use it." If we are willing and able to answer an-swer this message, Japan may be toppled over on her heels. With Singapore Singa-pore in Japanese hands some Japanese Japa-nese elements would be able to filter through the island barricade toward Australia. The fall of MacArthur will release thousands of Japanese soldiers, the fall of Singapore, thousands more. If the key defense of Java goes, the Japs can then flood south to Australia Austra-lia and perhaps isolate that continent conti-nent of hardy fighters. The invaders invad-ers can also swarm westward through the Straits of Malacca, take Rangoon, gateway of the Burma road. They can move submarines into the Persian gulf and the Red sea and threaten the life line to Britain's Brit-ain's middle east armies and Russia. Rus-sia. Once China is cut off, Japan will offer her a very favorable peace. Chiang Kai-shek would not accept, but his followers might accept. That would mean thousands more of Japan's effectives could be released, and if Russia's supplies are cut off Hitler could take Moscow while the Japanese troops move on Siberia. And so we can understand why the United States, fighting to hold their island defenses in the southern Pacific, Pa-cific, are praying that in the next few weeks that we will risk what we have to bastion them. Even though it be little it need not be too late. WNU Service, 1343 II Street, N-W, Washington, D. C. By the time these words are printed print-ed Singapore may have fallen. Japanese Jap-anese bombers may be raiding Australia and Japanese ships may be in Australian waters. Even so, according to the sober prediction of those in diplomatic and official circles cir-cles who are able to look at the war map without wishful thinking, the tide may still be turned against the Japanese If one condition remains the same. That condition is that the United Nations continue to hold key territory in that slim crescent of islands, is-lands, the Netherlands Indies which form a barrier between the continents conti-nents of Asia and Australia. There are two reasons why these experts believe this Malaysian bar-rior bar-rior may be held in spite of Japanese Jap-anese gains north and south of it. First, as one military man put it, "by rule of thumb Japan has already stretched her supply lines so far from her home bases that they may be expected to snap in vital spots." Second, because of successful delaying delay-ing actions now going on, time is fighting on the side of the United Nations, time for sufficient re-enforcements re-enforcements to arrive, especially from the United States, which will snatch air superiority away from the Japanese and thus affect the tide of battle. Japan has so far extended herself, her-self, experts agree, that a powerful blow might topple her over backwards. back-wards. General MacArthur has held a Japanese army of 200,000 men in the Philippines. Huge land, air and sea forces have been drawn into the siege of Singapore. Japanese troops are fighting in Burma, 3,000 miles from the Manchukuoan border. They are spread fan-wise from Sumatra in the west 4,000 miles along the equator to the Solomon islands beyond be-yond New Guinea. United Nations' Barrier It is the barrier the United Nations Na-tions have established from Sumatra to the Solomon islands, with Java as the key point, upon Which Japan may break her curved scimitar of offense. The Hermit , Of Sharktooth Shoals ' , The Hermit of Sharktooth Shoals came to town the other day with the surprising news that instead of being an enemy of man, the man-eating man-eating shark is now to be regarded as one of man's best friends, and an especial friend of the farmer's. The Hermit is a former newspaper newspa-per associate of mine who has renounced re-nounced the noise and tumult of cities and now helps conduct a shark fishing establishment at Fort Pierce off the east coast of Florida. Along with most people, I had thought that the commercial use, if any, for sharks was limited to the hides, for belts and shoes. But now I learn from the Hermit that shark liver oil is teeming with vitamins and is in great demand by pharmaceutical houses for those yellow pep pills that Americans are consuming in great numbers these days. But that, it seems, in no way limits lim-its the usefulness of the lowly shark. After the hide has been stripped off and the liver extracted, the carcass can be ground up and made into a high potency fertilizer, rich in urea and nitrates. And that's where the shark's value to the farmer comes in. Last year the Hermit and his sharking colleagues tossed overboard over-board two million pounds of perfectly perfect-ly good carcasses, simply because they didn't have the machinery necessary nec-essary to convert the defunct fish into fertilizer. This year, what with the announced shortage of nitrates and fertilizer, the Hermit feels that it is high time the government took an interest in the matter, and he is now in Washington for that purpose. The more I hear about the shark profession the more colorful it sounds. The Hermit, for instance, tells me that the sharkery's president presi-dent and founder is a prominent scientist, sci-entist, Dr. Alexander van Beyer, who has pioneered in the development develop-ment of vitamin products from shark livers. The doctor has Chinese Chi-nese connections and is a member of the Hip Sing tong which is an aid in the marketing of another byproduct, by-product, shark fins. The Chinese regard shark- fins as a great delicacy. deli-cacy. More than this, I understand that shark meat by any other name is an excellent food. Instead of letting let-ting the sharks eat us we may turn the tables and eat the sharks! Who knows? Japan has already penetrated scattered islands in some places In Borneo, New Guinea, in the Celebes Cele-bes and in the Australian mandated islands in the Bismarck archipelago. But there are many dents in her sword already more than 31 ships lost in the first few days of the battle bat-tle in the Macassar straits, which lie between Borneo and the Celebes. Many more such losses will be irreparable. ir-reparable. Successful, although scattered attacks at-tacks by American and Dutch planes and submarines and surface ships are taking their toll. And even though Japanese units may secure some island bases near enough to bomb the Australian coast, and some ships are able to slip through to raid coastal towns, the sword hand will be badly strained. The tough, well-fortified, well-supplied Island of Java can deaden her blows. And if enough other bases for allied bombers and subs remain from which the far-flung Nipponese invaders invad-ers can be harassed, her course westward and southward can be checked. For the United Nations fighting at the Malaysian barrier it is simply a problem of hanging on. For the United States it is a problem of producing pro-ducing and delivering the goods. Against us, is first our late start in war production; second, the great distance to the front about six weeks from loading to unloading; and third, lack of ships. Into High Gear We cannot make up lost time but it is agreed that Donald (Battling) Nelson and his war production board will keep us in high gear from now on. As for the ships, by June we will be producing them at the rate of two a day cargo ships. As for the precious cargoes, fighting planes which have to be shipped they are being turned out in rapidly increasing increas-ing numbers. The figures are secret. I have it on good authority that it would take only 2.000 more planes to give us superiority in the whole Pacific. Pa-cific. But far less than that are needed to establish superiority in the present fighting area since Japan must keep a large air force at home for defense of her own cities. As for the tanks and men, these |
