RUSSIA AND CHINA
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIR,—I appreciate your courtesy in printing and replying to my letter in your issue of September loth for I think there may be some misconception as to the possibility of supplying China with arms.
In the present state of air transport only a negligible quantity of munitions and stores could be flown to China from the U.S.S.R., not, unfortunately, even sufficient to maintain such fighting aircraft as would willingly be supplied. Tashkent, which you mention as the source of supply, is 300 miles from the nearest Chinese frontier, which is itself 2,200 miles (neces- sarily also by air) from the nearest rail head in China, from whence munitions could be transported to the fighting zones. There is also the necessary requirement of suitable aerodromes.
There are, of course, nearer sources of supply from the U.S.S.R., though perhaps equally limited and precarious, viz., the caravan routes across Mongolia, but the Japanese advance in the north will soon close these effectively.
In these circumstances, without wishing to appear controver- sial, I should like to emphasise that the supply of arms to China depends almost entirely on the degree to which the Japanese enforce their so-called " blockade " of the coast, and that therein lies the danger of further international complications.
I think we should have a clear appreciation of the facts in this important matter, for much depends on whether Chinese resistance will be exhausted through lack of munitions before Japan becomes exhausted, or at least seriously embarrassed, financially.—Yours faithfully,
Previous page
