24 JANUARY 1941, Page 14

Snt,—The article in your issue of January oath on "America

and the Far East" demonstrates Japan's ambitions in directions to which we, as well as America, should give heed while there is time. If she succeeds in absorbing China—or being absorbed by China eventually —Burma will be the next objective, with her inexhaustible wealth of rice, teak and silver. During the great war Burma was cut off from India by one German cruiser, despite our alliance with japan, owing to the absence of land communicatiod between the two countries. The Times said this was "a crying scandal "; so three -routes were then surveyed. Nothing further was done to build either a railway or a road. It is certain that neither India nor Burma—no longer united—will make good the deficiency ; it is an Imperial matter of the