NAVAL STRENGTH IN PACIFIC

Southland Times, Issue 24884, 26 October 1942, Page 5

NAVAL STRENGTH IN PACIFIC

ALLIES STRENGTHENED

(Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.)

(Rec. 9.20 p.m.) SYDNEY, October 25. No fresh action has occurred in the Solomons area, states the latest United States Navy communique. Conflicting assessments of the situation are proffered by various observers. However, the suggestion is widely made that the American Pacific Fleet has been considerably strengthened to meet anticipated Japanese thrusts. It is pointed out that the announcements of the commissioning of the two great British battleships, Anson and Howe, and of the presence of at least three battleships and an aircraft-carrier in the Indian Ocean have no doubt followed the general reallocation of the United Nations naval forces. David Laurence in The New York Sun says that the commissioning of the Anson and Howe should enable the release of American capital ships from the Atlantic to the Pacific and suggests that the news of the commissioning was not released until the move had been completed. Foster Hailey, the Honolulu correspondent of The New York Times, reply;ing to the question: “Where is the United States Fleet?” says the Japanese operate behind the thick screen of submarines through which opposing surface ships must pass. With naval power in the Pacific so finely balanced the Americans cannot afford to run risks. • ■ . . - The American magazine News Week declares: “The struggle for mastery of the Pacific is more involved and more subtly fought than the public realizes. The process of feint and counterfeint has been going on since Pearl Harbour with both sides wary of falling into traps.” SUPPLY LINE The Washington correspondent of The New York Herald-Tribune, estimating the number of enemy troops on Guadalcanar between 20,000 and 25,000, suggests a contributory reason for delay in the enemy’s land offensive may be that United States planes from Henderson airfield are preventing the Japanese from establishing a regular supply line to the chief beach head, Cape Esperance, on the northern side of the island. The London Daily Mail’s Washington correspondent believes that Japan’s ambitions in an imminent offensive go much further than the recapture of the south-eastern Solomons. He says the indications are that the enemy is planning to bear down on other Allied strong points further south to pave the way for a-, all-out offensive against Australia.

A writer in The Sydney Sun also suggests that audacious Japanese strategy may be to strike at New Caledonia, which is garrisoned by strong American forces. “New Caledonia would be no end in itself,” he says. “It is a logical operational springboard for attack against New Zealand and Australia.” However, it is contrary to the opinion of most military experts that the occupation of New Caledonia will be the Japanese “end in itself,” coupled with the occupation of the New Hebrides and probably Fiji. It would put Japanese naval forces in a favourable position to cut the American supply lines to Australia and New Zealand, neutralizing these countries as offensive bases without invasion. It is authoritatively accepted that the occupation of New Guinea, New Hebrides, New Caledonia and Fiji has always been an integral part of Japan’s Pacific strategy—and her failure to occupy these islands is the measure of her failure in the Pacific war.

NEW ZEALAND AS BASE OPERATIONS IN SOLOMONS (Rec. 7 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Oct. 22. The New Zealand Minister, the Hon. W. Nash, speaking at the Englishspeaking Union luncheon, said:— “New Zealand is a base for the present operations in the Solomons just as England is the United Nations base for operations in Europe. I look forward to the day when American boys, side by side with ours, will drive the Japanese right back to where they came from and settle the final battle on Japanese soil. “In shaping the post-war world Brit-ish-American domination is not contemplated. Any road on which we march is one which Russia, China and the other United Nations must march too. The great productive wealth controlled by America and the British Commonwealth must be used in building a world in which all can share and in which traditions of freedom and liberty, both individual and collective, will be available to all peoples.”