A LONG BITTER STRUGGLE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 15, 16 October 1942, Page 4

A LONG BITTER STRUGGLE

IF we are to believe that the opinions, expressed by Brig-adier-General Maas of the U.S.A. Marine Corps, are based on a close study of the position in the Pacific as far as the war with Japan is we must be'prepared to admit that long after Germany has been defeated we will still be left to fight the long bitter struggle with the arrogant little nation whose soldiers have already over-run so much of Asia and Oceania. The uncanny withdrawal in New Guinea, so utterly unlike the behaviour of the Japanese in the conduct of their campaign heretofore, is definitely but a prelude to a new offensive in the Solomons —possibly Guadalcanal', which is the national base for an attacking force seeking the invasion of Australia. The sudden melting away of the Jap resistance in the Owen Stanley range had the effect of a general tightening up in America's naval vigilance in the vicinity of the Solomons,, where an attack was expected and developed a week after the first enemy retreat. Plucky, persistency rewarded the repeated Jap efforts to reinforce their scattered bands still resisting on Guadalcanar the war of extermination cairied on by the American Marines. To aid these attempts and to afford them some degree of protection from the continual threat from the air by Allied bombers and fighters the Nipponese Naval authorities decided to risk a minor clash. Once again however the attempt has met with disaster and a further six ship (one a heavy cruiser) have been sent to the bottom. The American naval ascendency has once: more been established by a substansive victory. But where will the armies of the Mikado next strike ? That is the question exercising all minds in the South Pacific to-day. Undoubtedly Japan seeks the conquest of these islands and undoubtedly a full scale naval battle such as has not as yet taken place, must be enacted before she can do it. The collapse of the drive upon Port Moresby supplies further evidence of the importance which must be attached to the new move, upon which Tojo and his martial satallites are prepared to base their all. We can feel fully assured that the drive will be a co-ordinated one embracing sea,, land and air forces, and it will be for us to stand steadily under the shock as the sea might of two great nations meet in the greatest clash the Pacific has ever known.