Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 1942. STRENGTH IN THE PACIFIC.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 April 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 1942. STRENGTH IN THE PACIFIC.

AN announcement made officially in Washington that the X United States Pacific Fleet is now stronger in ships, aircraft and men than before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour is excellent news in itself. It would be easy, however, to build, upon this announcement greater expectations than are warranted at an early or immediate view. While it is possessed undoubtedly of formidable striking power, the American Pacific Fleet is under some definite limitations ami handicaps in using its strength.

For want of advanced bases, the United States is not in a position to use its naval forces directly ami with full freedom against Japan, and it may not be practicable even to cover the passage of the reinforcements that are needed urgently in the Philippines, where the forces now commanded by General Wainwright are making head gallantly against what threatens to become an overwhelming enemy attack.

For the time being, Japan retains great and important advantages. At anything but an immediate view, however, there is much To prick tlie bubble of the complacency wi.tli which the Japanese Prime Minister, General Tojo, has talked 01. late about the smashing of Allied naval; power. In their action to defeat Japan the Allies no doubt will rely in great part upon an orderly progression, by-stages, ■which must occupy a good deal, of time. It may be hoped, however, that the strain already imposed on Japan’s enormously extended communications, ami upon the forces available to protect them, will be intensified at least steadily from this time forward.

Already American submarines and surface raiding squadrons have penetrated deeply into areas in ■which Japan claims do possess and to exercise an undisputed naval supremacy. ■Within the last day or two the American Navy Department has reported the sinking' of Japanese merchant ships ami tankers by American submarines operating in Japanese waters, in the China Sea and in the South Pacific.

Japan is immediately and seriously vulnerable to a continuation of attacks of this kind and perhaps also to attacks on a much greater scale. Apart from the widely extended possibilities of attack on Japanese sea communications and transport, it has been suggested by American naval correspondents that, even with Russia ami Japan still at peace, it may be practicable for the United States to raid Japanese home bases and industrial territories with strong forces of shipborne aircraft, operating from bases in the Aleutian Islands.

From the standpoint of the Allies, the problems involved may be simplified considerably if Japan, as her next step in aggression, launches an attack on Asiatic Russia. As yet a report from Chungking that the Japanese Government, through its Ambassador in Moscow, Mr Sato, recently presented humiliating demands to the Soviet, is neither confirmed nor denied. It is very probable, however, that the Japanese war lords believe, rightly or wrongly, that if they do not attack Russia, that country sooner or later will attack Japan. It is not, therefore, to be taken for granted, that an attack on Asiatic Russia will be rejected by Hie Japanese High Command as entailing undue risks.

If Japan makes this plunge she will be exposed to attack in her home territories and bases by Russian and American aircraft operating from Siberian bases. Whether she attacks Russia or not, it is reasonably certain that, pending greater developments, she will be attacked with increasing vigour on her lengthy and exposed lines of communication in the Pacific and the Indian Ocean.