Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, MARCH 9, 1942. JAPAN’S SOUTHERN DRIVE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 March 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, MARCH 9, 1942. JAPAN’S SOUTHERN DRIVE.

SEVERAL theories have been advanced as to the strategic aims Japan is likely to pursue if she is able to complete her conquest of Java, or to immobilise the Allied forces on that island and gain undisputed possession for the time being of the Surabaya naval base. At an earlier stage it was thought not unlikely that the Japanese might be content to stand on the defensive, in and behind the barrier of the Netherlands East Indies, until they had seen what Nazi Germany was able to accomplish in Europe and elsewhere.

Ideas of this kind have gone definitely by the board. It is now taken for granted that, while she has the power to do so, Japan will continue to strike further afield. There is a measure of doubt, however, as to whether she will concentrate on her westward thrust towards and against India, in the hope of being able to co-ordinate her action with that presumably to be taken by Germany in Southern Russia and against the Middle East by way of the Balkans, or will devote her main resources and energies to an attack on Australia and perhaps also on New Zealand.

A very decided opinion on this question has been expressed by Major-General Gordon Bennett, who commanded the Australian troops in Malaya. “At the risk of being called a scaremonger, 1 declare,” he is reported as having said, “that an attack (on Australia) is coming very quickly. It is a matter of weeks, not months.” That a large-scale Japanese attack on Australia is imminent is the expressed opinion also of an American naval authority, who argues that Japan is bound to be impelled to that course of action by the fact that Australia is Hie base from which the Allies will develop their counteroffensive in the Pacific.

Willi much that is, at an immediate view, disturbing and even alarming, there is some legitimate comfort to be drawn from the fact that the demand and strain on Japan’s by no means unlimited resources are expanding enormously. In ninety days of campaigning she has made remarkable gains, but in order even to approach decisive results, she must strike powerful and deadly blows both at India and at one or both of the British South Pacific Dominions. It is plain enough that unless India can be put out of action, Japan sooner or later will have to face a tremendous pressure of land and air attack from India and China, in addition to Allied naval and other action in the Pacific. Of the South Pacific Dominions, Australia in particular is marked out as a vital base for ultimate offensive action by the Allies.

At a long view, the Allied countries have good reason to look to the outcome with confidence. That in no way alters the fact, however, that the prospect of an early and powerful attack on Australia must be regarded very seriously, not only by Australians, but by New Zealanders as well. Whether an attack on Australia was or was not accompanied by a simultaneous attack on New Zealand, it would of course be of supreme concern to this country. Our fate and security are wholly identified with those of our sister Dominion. There perhaps never have been two countries of whom if might be said more truly that they must stand or fall together.

In the crisis by which we are faced we arc evidently bound to do two things. We must prepare resolutely in the spirit enjoined by the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) in his address last evening, to .defend our own territory against any attack that may be made upon it, and we must be ready to make the most of every opportunity that exists for co-operation with Australia. Should an enemy attack bo concentrated in the first instance on Australia, it will be for our responsible leaders and their advisers to determine in what manner we can assist her. It may be that it is in helping to defend Australia that we shall best defend our own country. Taking account of questions of supply and the maintenance of supply routes, there arc some obvious reasons for doubting whether Japan would send an invading army as far afield as New Zealand.

The course of wisdom in this matter and for the time being, however, evidently is to prepare for the worst. Some surprising things have happened since the fateful day of December 7, and more may happen before the Allied nations are able to bring their power effectively to bear upon their enemy in the Pacific. Our task and duty in any ease is to stand shoulder to shoulder with Australia, and it may be hoped that complete plans and arrangements to that pud were made at the conference between representatives of the two Governments which concluded a few days ago at Canberra.