DIFFICULTIES OF ENTERPRISE

Southland Times, Issue 24819, 11 August 1942, Page 5

DIFFICULTIES OF ENTERPRISE

“ACTION IS LIMITED”

(Special Australian Correspondent, N.ZJ?.A.)

(Rec. 12.5 a.m.) SYDNEY, August 10. With only limited news available ot the Allied combined operation against the enemy occupied Solomon Islands, Australian news commentators are cautious in assessing the likely results of the present offensive. The magnitude of the task ahead is generally stressed, and there is evident a wait-and-see flavour about the comments. General MacArthur’s headquarters contributes little to the news of the operations, though it is confirmed that the Allied land forces are playing their part in the attacks. Australian troops are engaged. American comment on the operations is widely featured in Washington. Officials say that the offensive is likely at present to be limited to the Solomons area, but they do not deny the possibility that the Allies intend to retake Japanese held posts one after another in the entire north of Australia. The capture of the Solomons, they say, would give the Allies an ideal springboard for an offensive, which they admit is likely to prove a long and costly job. There is no disposition yet in Australia to regard the attacks at Tulagi as preliminaries to the opening of a second front, in the Pacific—though the eventual importance of an offensive is in no way discounted. NO OVER-ESTIMATION “The action is a limited one,” The Daily Telegraph says in a leader. “We must not over-estimate it as the be-\ ginning of a general offensive towards Tokyo. When we will be able to start on that road back must seem obscure to those who studied last week’s revelations about the strength of the aid coming to this theatre.” The Sydney Morning Herald says that given a reasonable measure of success in the present operations Australia can look to a notable easing of the danger which has lately arisen in the New Guinea area. “These operations, however, have much more than a preventive purpose,” it continues. “They constitute the first Allied attempt to oust the Japanese from any of their conquered territory. Considered in conjunction with the simultaneous action against Kiska, in the Aleutians, they are a heartening indication of the increasing strength of American naval and air forces in the Pacific relatively to Japan’s. But elation at the thought that the Allies have at last taken steps to turn back the Japanese tide of conquest should not blind Australians to the difficulties of the enterprise. Mention in communiques to opposition from the enemy’s land-based aircraft is a reminder that the advantage the American forces possessed at Midway now lies with the Japanese.” Some observers suggest that the immediate objective of the Allied forces is Guadalcanal 1 Island, w’hich the Japanese occupied in June with the evident intention of preparing air cover for another move out into the Pacific along the line of the New Hebrides and Fiji. The military correspondent of The Sydney Morning Herald calls the Allied offensive a “most welcome development, if only because when combined with the action of the task force against Kiska it points the way to the course of future action on a concerted plan.” He points out that to relieve the Japanese threat to Port Moresby any coun-ter-attack had necessarily to start on the flank because of the difficulties of frontal action in New Guinea. The attacks on the Solomons relieved the strain on Port Moresby and ultimately point the way to Rabaul. “But a negative forcing back of the enemy from the nearest points to Australia is not sufficient,” he declared. “Reoccupations can have meaning only if they are part of a wider and permanent scheme of counter-attack through the South-West Pacific zone.”