SHOWDOWN AT HAND IMPORTANCE OF SOLOMONS BATTLE

Evening Star, Issue 24285, 28 August 1942, Page 3

SHOWDOWN AT HAND

IMPORTANCE OF SOLOMONS BATTLE

EFFECT ON ENTIRE PACIFIC WAR NEW YORK, (Rec. 11 a.m.) August 2V. “A Pacific show-down seems _ at hand,” says the New York ‘Ties' correspqndent, Hanson Baldwin, in commenting on the Solomons campaign, “ which may alter the finelydrawn balance of power in the Pacific, thus affecting the entire course of the war in the Pacific theatre.” Mr Baldwin explains that it is clear that the marines and the navy are tenaciously clinging to the footholds of Guadalcanar and other Southern Solomons while the American Air Force is operating from one or more recently-conquered fields. “ This big asset is enhanced by the proximity of the Soloons to other Allied bases in Australia, the New Hebrides, New Caledonia,- and elsewhere from where long-range bombers are supoprting our naval forces. “The fact that both sides are throwing considerable naval forces into the action stresses the strategic importance of the battle because the Solomons and Dieppe proved that invasion and occupation are possible only if naval superiority can be maintained. Therefore, the Japanese attacks on Guadalcanar and the abortive Japanese landing attempts are considerably less important than the naval clash.” Concluding, Mr Baldwin says: “The Solomons may he the preface to other actions elsewhere. Since June, when Japan chose the Midway-Hawaiians as her objective, she has not struck anywhere until now, but the Japanese do not entertain a passive concept of war. The Coral Sea battle preceded Midway the Solomons may precede an attempt against Hawaii unless successive defeats have to greatly depleted the Japanese navy.”