FULL-DRESS ATTACK

Evening Star, Issue 24328, 17 October 1942, Page 5

FULL-DRESS ATTACK

ATTEMPT TO REGAIN SOLOMONS AFRICANS' PRECARIOUS HOLD ON ISLANDS (Rec. 8 a.m.) NEW YORK, Oct. 16. ‘‘Our position in the Solomons is still uncertain, as indeed it must remain until it is much farther ■ extended,” says Major Eliot, writing in the New York ‘ Herald-Tribune.’ “ So long as the Japanese are close at hand and able to reinforce their advance bases almost at will our hold on Guadacanal and Tulagi must continue precarious,” he states. “The Japanese will continue to try to push us from those islands so long as they are able to do so. On the other hand our only purpose being there must be, as Admiral King announced at the outset, to use our new foothold as a base for further offensive operations. The Japanese simply, cannot afford to allow us to obtain better bases and bases closer to Japan itself for the operations of our submarines. The expulsion of the Japanese from the entire New Guinea area would expose their main advance fleet base at Truk. It is. therefore, likely that the present Japanese operations in the Solomons represent a full-dress attack intended to expel us from Guadacanal and Tulagi regardless of cost. It is possible that the Solomons area may be about to see the first clash between American a'nd Japanese capital ships.