THE STRANGE SILENCE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 64, 12 June 1942, Page 4

THE STRANGE SILENCE

GREAT things are happening out in the mid-Pacific waters. Two major naval engagements have been fought and won by the Allied Command, yet for strategical reasons details are not to be made available at present . . . Thus the news of the day has reached our impatient ears, while Washington with more of the Yankee hunger for headlines than her phlegmatic sister-in-arms, announces vaguely and tantalisingly that "fuller details will be made available some time next week." As far as the peoples of the South Pacific outposts are concerned, the nearness of the Japanese menace ca,n only be guaged# by submarine raids upon Sydney and Newcastle and the usual confused air- clashes off the tee of New Guinea. The official silence is imposing a strain upon the nine million people who now lie directly in the path of Nippon's southward drive, that not even the suppressed enthusiasm of radioed naval victories, can alleviate. Japanese broadcasts of late are also, confused and certainly carry less assurance than previously. The answer to the however is merely a simple deduction from the facts as they present themselves, in the giant catalogue of war events. 11l the first place the sudden Japanese halt in the northern waters of Australia where for two solid months now only fitful fighting has been indulged in by the nations whose only hope lies in her power to launch swift decisive campaigns, speaks for itself. Something has gone wrong with Togos careful plan of action. We would have heard from his forces long ere this,, had it been otherwise. But the announcement of the Coral Sea and Midway victories, has been followed by nothing more than uncanny silence by both sides. Putting two and two together we have a reasonable right to suppose that destiny has once again been kind to us and that the two actions have been decisive and devastating for the Imperial Navy of the Mikado. In other words the drive south has been already attempted twice by large and heavily supported Japanese forces and on each occasion they have met with disaster at the hands of the combined Allied fleets. This assumption can be based upon, the stalemate which is developing in northern Australia and the fact that such a drift in the condiuct of war, has up till now been foreign to Japanese policy. When the history of the present conflict is written New Zealanders may realise: with a jolt of surprise that they can regard the battles of Midway and the Coral Sea as twin actions which Spelt their salvation.