Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1942. “THE FIRST SMALL STEP.”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 August 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, AUGUST 18, 1942. “THE FIRST SMALL STEP.”

PERHAPS no important operation of the war has been reported more modestly, or commented on in more cautious terms, than the attack on Japanese bases in the Solomon Islands, in which the famous American Marine Corps has taken the leading part, though with powerful support from Allied naval and air forces. Official and other reports, which are definite as far as they go though admittedly incomplete, make it clear, however, that footholds have been gained at several vital points in the islands attacked, and that as matters stand sea and air communications with these footholds are being maintained and protected.

These gains, which are stated frankly to have been made at the cost of heavy initial losses, evidently are of considerable importance at an immediate view as tending to wreck the aggressive plans of the Japanese in the South and South-West Pacific and also as a first stage in Allied offensive operations, or as one American commentator, Mr Hanson Baldwin, of the “New York Times,” has called it, “the first small step in what will probably be the most difficult operation in the history of amphibious warfare. ’ ’

This (he adds) is a step by step and island by island advance across the Pacific. It is a back-breaking task and cannot be accomplished quickly against the Japanese.

In later comment, Mr Baldwin has said that an Allied offensive in the Solomons'could not in any sense be decisive, and that: “A great strategical offensive based on New Zealand and Australia and contiguous islands and directed against Japan might require years to complete.”

All this may be perfectly true, but it is hardly to be suggested that the Allies are relying solely on an offensive from the Pacific Dominions —although at the right time and in the right circumstances the present offensive may be broadened and extended greatly—as a means of overthrowing Japan. The immediate task devolving on the Allies is that of imposing the greatest possible pressure, at points where it is advantageous to do so, on Japan’s widely extended bases and lines of communication. A stage no doubt will be reached, however, at which it will be possible to attack the enemy simultaneously and strongly in areas separated by great distances. In the ultimate development of the Allied offensive there should be material modification of that “step by step and island by island” advance across the Pacific of which Mr Baldwin has spoken?

An indication of the scale and scope the operations in the Pacific may be expected ultimately to assume is given by the Tokio newspaper “Asahi Shimbun” in the reported statement that the attacks in the Solomons

are part of a big American four-pronged offensive against Japan from the Aleutians, from Australia, from China and from aircraftcarriers. The Japanese newspaper adds that an attack from China is the only feasible one at present.

The “Asahi Shimbun’s” reference to the Aleutians is interesting as implying that Japan, as has been credibly reported, means to attack Siberia, or that she regards an attack on her own territory from bases on the Russian Asiatic seaboard as ultimately inevitable. There are in addition other areas in which Allied offensive action against Japan is possible, amongst them Burma.

That the attack on the Solomons is serving an important and valuable purpose is indicated, amongst other things, in the suggestion that the Japanese may risk a large-scale naval action in the region of the contested islands. The question of whether Japan can afford to risk such an action, taking account of all she has to defend and of the scale on which the Allied offensive must be expected ultimately to develop, no doubt is giving her war lords food for very serious thought.

A POSTPONEMENT OF RATES. JN reply to the suggestion made by a correspondent yesterday that the payment of Borough rates, without loss of discount, might very well be postponed for two or three months as a concession to ratepayers who have had to meet unexpected expense in repairing earthquake damage, it 'has been stated by the Town Clerk (Mr oTiara Smith) that discount on rates is only allowable within a period of 30 days fixed by statute and that legislation would be necessary to extend the discount date. This, of course, is understood, but it would be reasonable in the circumstances and might be possible to secure from the Government a promise of the passage of a Bill validating the small concession asked for. There are other local body areas in the Wairarapa and elsewhere in which this measure of relief no doubt would be as welcome as it would be in Masterton and in which it might as reasonably be authorised. A very short and simple Bill would meet the requirements in this matter of all the local body areas concerned. The concession sought is limited and specific and might be made without complicating in any way the general question of earthquake relief.