DEMANDS FOR ACTION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 August 1942, Page 3

DEMANDS FOR ACTION

AGAINST THE JAPANESE MENACE MADE INSISTENTLY IN AUSTRALIA POINTED QUESTIONS ASKED. IS GENERAL MACARTHUR BEING RESTRAINED? (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 6. Tn the past 48 hours Australians have felt the sense of security which was engendered in their minds by the victories of the Coral Sea and Midway .Island, slipping away from them. The present enemy moves are as great a menace to New’ Zealand’s security as Australia’s. Despite the absence of official news, it is generally believed that events in the South-West Pacific are approaching a climax. General Sir Thomas Blarney, head of the Australian Forces, told war correspondents that the Japanese force making a land drive from Gona were members of a picked force trained in commando methods. He said he expected the Allied forces to be thoroughly equipped when the time came for them to go into battle. The supply of equipment was such that Australia was now almost out of the difficult position of even six months ago. He looked forward with confidence to the outcome of' any, emergency which might arise. Questions in the public mind here are: First, in view of the Allied air strength and the Japanese defeats at sea, how did the enemy manage to land at Gona? Secondly, why were the Allies not able to prevent him from reinforcing the original small invasion force Thirdly, how was he able, in less than a fortnight, to take command of a stretch of country extending 60 miles inland to the Kokoda aerodrome and infiltrate even beyond that point? Answers to these questions are eagerly awaited. Concerning the area to which the Japanese have now advanced, an American correspondent wrote: "There can be no excuse for failure here. It is country made for defence.” The ominous position in India as related to the South-West Pacific is widely stressed. “The Japanese hope to conquer India without a fight,” says the “Daily Telegraph” in an editorial. “If India fell to the Japanese a vast army, air force and fleet would be available for a direct assault on Australia. In the meantime, we are dangerously on the defensive.” A sharp warning note sounded by Mr W. M. Hughes, who, as a member of the Australian War Advisory Council, must know the Allies’ plan of strategy, is given wide prominence. “Our policy,” he declares, “is follow- ' ing blindly the track which led to the downfall of Malaya and all the other countries which fell almost without effort before the onslaught of Japan.” Calls are made for an immediate Allied offensive. “Is General MacArthur getting all the planes, ships and equipment he needs?” asks the “Daily Telegraph.” “Or is he held back by men above him who shape and direct the grand strategy. If he is being restrained, then this is the moment for Mr Curtin to reaffirm —as unequivocally as he did before —Australia’s belief that whatever happens in this theatre must affect the Allied cause everywhere.” OFFICIAL REJOINDER REGARDING LAND THRUST IN PAPUA. “NO SPECIAL THREAT EXISTS” (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 6. The Owen Stanley Range, rising to almost 14,000 feet, is the Allied defence line against the Japanese land I thrust in Papua, which began with the enemy landing in the Buna-Gona sector. Any Allied garrison stationed in the Buna-Gona sector would have been doomed in the face of a serious attack, an official Allied headquarters spokesman told war correspondents this today. The spokesman was replying to questions by correspondents on the Allied defence policy in New Guinea, and why the Buna-Gona sector was not defended by our troops. He said the mountain range was “almost impassable,” and with the enemy in partial control of the northern New Guinea coast, and in control of the sea lanes from Rabaul, it would have been impossible to defend an advanced position like Buna-Gona without sacrific-, ing the troops involved. “They could be supplied in the main only from the sea, with little hope of success,” said the spokesman, “and any garrison there would undoubtedly have been overwhelmed in the case of a serious attack. No special threat exists in its occupation by the enemy, and the establishment of an air base there would be difficult in the face of our air opposition.” DANGERS SEEN VIEWS OF AMERICAN WAR CORRESPONDENTS. NEED OF BETTER AIRCRAFT & POSITIVE POLICY. , (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 6. Efforts to awaken the United States to the dangers of Japan’s “hidden offensive” in the southwest Pacific are being made by American war correspondents writing from Australia. Stressing the sorry under-estimation of the danger to the Allies’ Pacific strategy of the pending Japanese moves, they emphasise that Australia, which offered opportunities for development of a second front has been allowed to degenerate to “a secondary front.” Writing in the “Christian Science Monitor,” Mr W. E. Lucas describes the Japanese in the past six months as burrowing like moles undei' a vast area bounded by an arc sweeping from Timor to the Solomons, and coming to the surface only occasionally to construct bases. "The enemy’s purpose,” he says, “is clear—to build bases to check any Allied move northward, jpd

also to use them for an assault against Australia if this comes within the scope of Tokio’s grand strategy.” He says that “success of this Japanese move is the measure of Allied impotence. The Japanese have been able to penetrate and consolidate while the Allies are able to do little to stop them.” Mr Lucas points out that each Japanese move have been seemingly insignificant when taken from the context, but total results has been to pin down the Allies to months of ‘defensive activity,’ while they try to build an offensive force. “American airmen are handicapped by flying aircraft inferior to the Japanese planes,” said Mr William Dunn, Columbia Broadcasting correspondent, in a radio talk from Australia. “They are supremely confident of their ability to do the job here, but emphasise that they need planes to outfly the Zeros.”

The “Sydney Morning Herald” voices the fear that after overwhelming Port Moresby, the Japanese forces may move against the northern Australian mainland. While this may be exaggerated realism, there can be.no overestimation of the seriousness of the present position. Port Moresby and New Caledonia are the last Allied bases off Australia’s east coast. If these fall, the possibility of launching an Allied offensive from Australia might be checked beyond power of restarting, at least for a very considerable time. FULLY INFORMED MEMBERS OF WAR COUNCIL. FEDERAL PREMIER REPLIES TO MR HUGHES. (Received This Day, 9.50 a.m.) CANBERRA, This Day. “The military operations of the command in this area are not influenced by either unwillingness or incompetence,” said the Prime Minister, Mr J. Curtin, in reply to Mr W. M. Hughes’s statement. “The members of the War Council have had ample opportunities, as have had the Government members, to indicate inside the War Council what is the right thing to do with what we have. The war councillors are fully informed in respect to every aspect of the conduct of the war. The whole council, which includes Mr Hughes, has had numerous consultations, not only with the chiefs of staff and General Blarney, but also with General MacArthur.