WAR IN THE PACIFIC

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23967, 7 June 1943, Page 6

WAR IN THE PACIFIC

NEW ZEALAND’S PART ADDRESS BY AMERICAN ADMIRAL “What of the present and near future?’ asked Rear-Admiral Theodore Stark Wilkinson, who is on a special mission in New Zealand on behalf of the United States Navy in the western Pacific, in a broadcast address last night. “The Jap. is stopped, but we are not,” he observed. “We have the initiative, and we are on the march. Just where and when I naturally cannot say, but I hope and believe that we are well started on the road back to Tokyo. It may take time, there may be set-backs, but we see the road, the sea lines, before us.” New Zealand was working shoulder to shoulder with the United States, Great Britain, and all the United Nations. “I have seen your forces in the field,” declared the Admiral. “Your ships are side by side with ours, the cruisers in our cruiser task forces. The corvettes have been doing a noble job in the dangerous waters off Guadalcanal, guarding our ships there by their anti-submarine patrol. It has not been a passive guarding.” Loss of the Moa Not long ago, he added, the Americans had been thrilled at the destruction of a large Japanese submarine by the Kiwi and the Moa. But, unhappily, the latter had later been bombed and sunk in a heavy Japanese air attack on the Guadalcanar ‘area with, however, only small loss of life. “Your air force is stationed throughout our islands,” continued the Admiral. “It is patrolling against submarines, searching for suspicious craft of any type. In Guadalcanar it is sharing in the bombing raids on Japanese bases, and pulling its load and more in the manifold offences we launch from that base.” The third division of the New Zealand Army was also on the job. It was training for combat duty in New Caledonia and, with the United States and French Forces in that island, was ready for war, and responsible for defence in the event of attack. “I know that the men are anxious for actual combat duty,” said the speaker. “I know of their excellence and efficiency, and we are ready to use the men on the same basis as our own Army and Marine divisions. Specific plans for its use I cannot give, but you can be assured that the division is accorded full weight and value in our projected employment of ground force.”

Besides - those forces in the forward zone, New Zealand had been given by Admiral Halsey the responsibility of the defence of the kingdom of Tonga and of Norfolk Island, and was sharing in the defence of Fiji. Both Tonga and Norfolk Island were commanded by New Zealand officers directly under Admiral Halsey, and in the former group the United States naval base detachment of several hundred men was under the command of the New Zealand commander. But these contributions to the armed forces of the United Nations in the distant areas of Africa and the south Pacific were by no means the only share of New Zealand in the war. Supplies had been manufactured by New Zealand industry or raised by New Zealand farmers and sent to the advanced areas. All the fresh meats and vegetables for the United States troops and air forces had, for months past, come from New Zealand. More recently other types of provisions had been furnished as well. Prefabricated houses, hospital and barrack equipment, and blankets, were but examples of many items which had been gratefully received and put to immediate use. Food for Forces The furnishing of such supplies by New Zealand had served several vital purposes. First, it had reduced, by the shorter voyage required than from the United States, the demand for shipping, so sorely needed for the expanding. -.United Nations’ offensive. TTiey hadsfafon thus enabled to reach the users more quickly than if shipped directly from America. But, most important of all, in his opinion, was the fact that they had swollen the total of the United Nations’ production, and so permitted a wider and more complete prosecution of the war. “But there is still another service Tew Zealand is rendering to our troops in the south Pacific,” said Admiral Wilkinson. “Many of them, .as you know, are quartered at various camps throughout the Auckland and Wellington districts. Some of them are recently returned from long months on Guadalcanal where they engaged in hand-to-hand fighting, and they are here for rest and recuperation; also for exorcising the malaria demon which has plagued them sorely.”

There was no need for New Zealanders to fear that malaria would be introduced into their country. It was mosquito-borne, and the special type of mosquito that carried it could not stand the rigors of New Zealand’s climate.

All of those troops, with the exception of those that were still affected by malaria, were drilling and training for return to the front. Another large body of troops, said the speaker, had recently come direct from the United States, and were being "staged” in New Zealand pending transportation to the combat zone. They, too, were drilling intensively and training constantly. “These men and others who have been in New Zealand, or are here in other smaller detachments, all testify to the courtesy, cordiality, and hospitality shown to them in public and in your homes,” remarked the admiral. “That, too, is a substantial if intangible contribution the home folk of New Zealand has made and is making to the success of the war.

“I have said that we are on the road to Tokyo, on the road to victory,” the speaker concluded. “Other roads that the United Nations are travelling lead to Rome and to Berlin. We shall get to all, one by one perhaps, but to all ultimately. The faster we travel the less time we allow the enemy to retrieve his losses, to perfect his defences. The faster we travel, the less final and total cost to us in material. Our speed is regulated by our military operations, of course, but they, in turn, depend upon the support, the production of the people at home.” When the happy ending was set to the chapter of American endeavour in the south Pacific, New Zealand would be in at the finish, well up in the front rank, and still going strong.