Malaka Straight Gateway to the SW Pacific C

The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present the Pacific Story. In the mounting fury of world conflict, events in the Pacific are taking on ever greater importance. Here is the story of the Pacific and the millions of people who live around this greatest sea.

The drama of the people whose destiny is at stake in the Pacific War. Here is the tale of the war in the Pacific and its meaning to us and to the generations to come. Tonight's Pacific story, Malacca Strait, gateway to the Southwest Pacific, comes to you from Washington DC and Hollywood, as another public service with drama The Past and Present and

commentary by Admiral Sir James Somerville, head of the British Admiralty delegation in Washington. Malacca Strait, gateway to the Southwest Pacific. For a thousand years, nations have struggled for control of the stretch of water between the the melee peninsula and the great island of Sumatra.

The blood of Britishers, Frenchman, Dutchman, Spaniards, Portuguese and Asianics has mingled with the waters of this trade. Today the Japanese control of this stretch of water, the straights of Malacca, is being challenged by the Allies.

Until this control is finally rested from them, the Japanese will hold a strategic advantage in this part of the Pacific. I spent all my days in the Malacca Street. This is a steamship pilot. You can hear this map.

The pilot points to the straits. It's 520 miles long. 520 miles. And for a long time, the Japanese controlled every foot of it. In the years before the war, the straits were the main sea lane for ships on route from Europe and India to China and the Indies.