LIMITED OFFENSIVE FROM AUSTRALIA

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 168, 18 July 1942, Page 5

LIMITED OFFENSIVE FROM AUSTRALIA

AGAINST JAPANESE

Early Move Favoured In Official Quarters Special Australian Correspondent. Rec. 2 p.m. SYDNEY, this day. Australia had to be prepared for several years of war and for great struggles which lie ahead in the South-west Pacific, as well as in other parts of the world. This statement has been made by the Minister for the Army, Mr. Fordo, who says that the army in Australia might have to fight off an attempted invasion. It should not be imagined, he says, that the Japanese will be content merely to hold the territories they have already conquered. Drives further south are likely. The army in Australia is now the strongest ever assembled in the Southern Hemisphere, but more fighters, bombers, tanks, guns and ships are needed. Mr. Forde said the position in Egypt was causing great concern and the war was going against I.ussia. Important discussions affecting future plans in the south-west Pacific have taken place between the Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, and General Mac-Arthur. No official statement has been made, but it is understood one matter discussed was the likelihood of Japan's southern bases being attacked from Australia. Official quarters have shown an increasing tendency to anticipate Japanese moves by an early ott'entive on enemy-occupied territory close to Australia. Apart from giving the Allied forces here better jumping-off places for the greater offensive which must eventually come, it is believed that a determined show of force by a direct attack against a limited objective in the Pacific theatre might help to discourage Japan frcm attacking Russia's eastern frontiers.