NAVAL ROUTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 March 1942, Page 3

NAVAL ROUTES

ACROSS THE PACIFIC NEW ZEALAND’S IMPORTANT PLACE. AMERICAN PREDICTS GREAT BATTLE. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) LONDON, March 9. An American commentator, Mr Paul Schubert, in a broadcast today, analysed the naval situation in the central Pacific. There were, he said, two main stepping stones in the Allied line of supply across the Pacific. These were Hawaii and New Zealand, with a chain of islands—Fiji and Samoa, for instance —as intermediates. Of the stepping-stones, New Zealand was fortunately outside the radius of any Japanese land-based aircraft. The attack on Japan’s island bases in the Marshall Islands and the Gilbert Islands was connected with the defence of the supply route, as from these groups the intermediate steppingstones could be reached. This objective, apparently, was most successfully attained. The supply line was athwart the pattern of Japanese long-term plans. As yet the war was only three months old, but a battle of major proportions for this supply route seemed almost inevitable in the near future. BITTER FIGHTING STILL GOING ON IN JAVA. BRITISH TROOPS ENGAGED. LONDON, March 9. The Japanese-controlled Saigon radio announced that bitter fighting was still going on in the interior of Java, in which British troops were participating. Later Tokio radio claimed that the Bandoeng airport was occupied yesterday and that penetration of the town was started in the evening.