ACTION URGED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 July 1942, Page 4

ACTION URGED

$ IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC , — AGAINST JAPANESE BASES. SPECULATION IN UNITED STATES. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.50 p.m.) NEW YORK, July 2. Operations to seize a Japanese-held base, such as Rabaul, Wake Island or Tulagi are advocated by the “New York “Herald-Tribune’s” military correspondent, Major Eliot. One of the signs suggesting that the United Nations may be getting ready to capitalise the naval advantage gained by the Coral Sea and Midway battles is the recent American bombing of Wake Island. Others signs inblude intensified raids on the Timor and New Guinea areas. Bombing alone is not enough, because at best it can only prevent the enemy using the bases. What is needed is to drive the Japanese out of their positions and Convert them to Allied use. The only way to take positions such as Rabaul, Wake Island and Tulagi is to land troops and take physical possession of them. A “New York Times” correspondent suggests that Wake Island may be retaken, not only to avenge the marines who died defending' it, but because, if we could take and hold the island, our lines would be advanced by more than a thousand miles. It may also be significant that the censor passed the news of the arrival of a completely-equipped expeditionary force of American marines at a South Pacific port recently, as marines are not usually sent to bases where action is not expected. It may well be that we are preparing to reap the fruits of the Coral Sea and Midway Island victories. Sooner or later the present stalemate in the South Seas will be broken on a battlefield of our own choosing.