MOMENTOUS DAYS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 19, 17 October 1942, Page 7

MOMENTOUS DAYS

SEW YORK, Oc-lober 15. The seriousness of the Navy Department’s views of the enemy’s latest manoeuvres in the Solomons is emphasized by the speed’ with which the announcement was made, says the Associated Press. The Japanese activities have a grim significance not hitherto attached to their movements in the South-west Pacific. They have not previously succeeded in bombarding the airfield or the main installations on Guadalcanal. Furthermore, the fact that troops have landed from transports covered by naval units means undoubtedly that not only men but artillery, in which the Japanese were previously deficient, and also supplies, have been put ashore. The Washington correspondent of the “New York Times” says that it is possible that the renewed action lends some support to foreign reports that a large Japanese fleet has moved into the South-west Pacific. The facts in the latest Navy Department com. munique, even without elaboration by official sources, indicate a possible necessity for recasting the hitherto optimistic view of the Solomons action, if the Japanese are willing, as they seem to be, to expend all the force necessary and make any sacrifice in the attempt to recapture the Guadalcanal airfield.