SERIOUS VIEW

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 244, 16 October 1942, Page 5

SERIOUS VIEW

LATEST JAP. MOVES GR1M S1GNIFICANCE SOLOMONS IN THE BALANCE

P.A. Cable.

NEW YORK, Oct. 15.

The seriousness with which the Navy views the enemy's latest manoeuvres in the Solomons is emphasised by the speed with which the announcement was made of the latest attacks and the present battle, says the Washington correspondent of the Associated Press. The Japanese activities contain a grim new significance not hitherto attaclied to their movements in the Southwest Pacific, They have not previously succeeded in bombardirtg the airfield or the main mstallations. Furthermore, the fact that troops were landed from transports covered by naval units means undoubtedly that not only men but artillery, in which the enemy was previously deficient, were got ashore, as well as supplies. The New York Times's Washington correspondent says: "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 communique, even without elaboration by official sources, indicate the possible necessity of 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 saerifice ip the attempt to recapture Guadalcanar airfield."