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Singora to Singapore. Dopesters in London guessed that although the British would fight hard in the extreme north, they would probably not send heavy reinforcements up, but would fall back into central Malaya, to insure themselves against being cut off by a cross-country spur from Kuantan. As for the defenses of Singapore itself, they had. as yet, no qualms.
The British Empire forces in Malaya under Major General Arthur Ernest Percival are thought to number about 125,000 Australians, Indians, New Zealanders, Scots, and Englishmen, all well equipped and rigorously trained in jungle warfare. They are not too strong in heavy equipment, except in the Singapore area, where there is plenty of artillery. Air Marshal Robert Brooke-Popham's R.A.F. strength was apparently shocked by the first blast, and consequently the Japanese at first achieved local air control in north Malaya. But from London it was announced that immediate reinforcements would be sent by way of a long-prepared chain of airports from the Middle East and India.
The Road to Mandalay. The capitulation of Thailand, probably long arranged, paved the way for an attack on Burma. A Japanese force cut up-country as fast as it could go. Perhaps as a pretext for invading Burma, the Japanese announced that the British, with some Chinese help, had pushed 30 miles into Thailand to Chieng Rai. This the British denied. The Japanese bombed Burmese airports to try to get air superiority.
In Dutch. The Japanese did not attack a single Netherlands outpost. But the Dutch knew there was no permanency to this, and they went straight to work. Part of the Dutch Air Force joined the British in Malaya. Dutch submarines sank four Japanese transports as they rushed 4,000 reinforcing troops to Cape Patani; next day the Dutch caught a tanker and a freighter. Just as they had been tough in negotiation, so now the Dutch of the Indies were proving determined in action.
All in all, Britain's only uneasiness about the defense of the Singapore area last week was that the U.S. Fleet was not there. Even without it, Singapore (like Suez, which was also split away from its complementary force at Gibraltar) looked like anything but a doormat with Welcome on it.