OBSERVERS’ BELIEF

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 14, 12 October 1942, Page 5

OBSERVERS’ BELIEF

Tide Of War Turning In Pacific

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 10.

lu spite of the Japanese threats to the American positions in the Solomons, a strong feeling is generally evident among observers tooth in Australia and the United States that the tide of the Pacific war is now turning slowly iu favour of the Allies. Australia’s Prime. Minister, Mr. Curtin, indicated that this optimistic assessment applied also to the global war when he told Parliament that it was his belief the Axis was not now making progress on any front. The. cause for which the Allied Nations were fighting was being gradually vindicated. “Simultaneously with the steady advance of the Australians in New Guinea, the Americans have already beaten off new attempts to expel them from the (Solomons and have retained marked air superiority, destroying more than 200 Japanese planes at a cost of 4 less than 40 of their own,” writes the “.Sydney Morning Herald’s” military correspondent today. “The Americans have also turned the tables against the Japanese at the other end of the Pacific. Their forces in the Aleutians are definitely closing in on Japan.” . „ End of Defensive Seen.

.Writing in the New York “HeraldTribune,” Major-General Feilding Eliot says that-1942 is the last defensive year for; the United Nations. “It is a year.” (he . writes, “in which the . UnitedjtNations will hold fast while America prepares the means of holding .the Japanese and Germans encircled ;by. sea’and land to prevent them from ■ joining gaining new resources lor.bases.’tThe'buildingjUp of,a worldtwlde system of.iprotected communicaItions is an essentia! preliminary to offensive. operations which,this system Gs making possible and which will de|cide'*tlie’war. "One of the„ greatest achievements of the Allies has '(been the consolidation of the great Pacific route- from (America to Australia, and. the operations in New Guinea are directly connected with the protection of this farflung artery of power.” “The rising sun appears to have l gone down again over Attu and Agatu ’in the 'Aleutians, and there’is evidence (that the Japanese are finding their (Aleutians not worth the. cost,” says jthel“New York'Herald-Tribune” edi- | torially. “Thousands of miles away, in the tropic’jungles of New 'Guinea, the enemy < seem to. have made a similar discovery'and to have simply decamp,ed. (But one should not over-readily ; yield to the temptation to reduce our (estimates of tho Japanese fighting *' qualitiesJapanese Aggressiveness.

“The aggressive spirit that tries everything, even, in the face of risks, that is willing abruptly to cut losses in one theatre where matters do not go well in order to try somewhere else, can.bo overdone, but has great military virtue. “Since the Allies reformed their shattered lines in the Pacific war has consisted) of a series of Japanese offensive thrusts which were repelled with heavy Japanese losses. But there has been attrition on our side, too. “In the Pacific war, from the Andreanov islands to the Owen Stanley Ranges, strategies cannot be judged till the last scores are in, but boldness is always advantageous, even if operations do not turn out exactly as planned.” The “iNew York Times,” commenting on the operations of Australia-based bombers in the Solomons area, says that the net result of the damage done, to Kieta airfield has not been officially estimated, but must have tremendously assisted the U.S. marines on Guadalcanal because the Japanese air force has obviously been preparing a coun-ter-attack against Guadalcanal. In the Aleutians, it is reported, recent aerial pictures demonstrate, that the Japanese have not abandoned Kiska, but are bending every effort to make the base stronger. Many buildings have, been sunk in pits and dummy airfields constructed.

MUCH SOUGHT AFTER

Souvenirs Of Solomons Fighting

(.Received October 11, 9.30 P.m.) NEW YORK, October 10.

A lively trade in captured Japanese equipment has developed in army and navy circles in the .South Pacific as articles taken in the Solomons lighting filter back to Allied bases. According to the correspondent of the "New York Times” in the South Pacific, soldiers and sailors unable to participate in the fighting are ardently bidding for Japanese guns, swords, knives, grenades and flags. One marine sergeant, recovering from wounds in a base hos-. pital, refused 200 dollars for the sword of a Japanese officer he killed on Guadalcanal. NEW GUINEA VISITED MacArthur And Blarney (By Ti-lrgrnpli.— Press Assn.--Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received October 11, 11 p.m.) SYDNEY, October 11. General MacArthur as -well as General Blarney, Commander-in-Chief of the Australian land forces, was recently at the front in New Guinea. General MacArthur travelled some distance up the Owen Stanley trail from Port Moresby. Addressing Australian troops, General MacArthur said: “I hope you will 'be as good soldiers as your Anzac fathers. Looking nt you, I am sure you are.”