SUBSTANTIAL AID

Wairarapa Times-Age, 18 August 1942, Page 2

SUBSTANTIAL AID

SENT BY UNITED STATES TO AUSTRALIA. MR HUGHES ON SOLOMONS BATTLE. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) SYDNEY, August 16. Statements that supplies from America to Australia were disappointingly small and had been reduced to a mere trickle were misleading and calculated to depress the people of Australia and hearten the enemy, said Mr W. M. Hughes today. He added that the forces sent by the United States to the Commonwealth were, to say the least, substantial. ’ “The Battle of the Solomons is being fought in the main by Americans and is as much a battle for Australia as if it were fought on the coasts of Australia,” Mr Hughes added. “Even more significant than the magnitude and strength of the forces engaged in the Solomons is the fact that it is an offensive—the first offensive by the Allies since the Pacific war began. “The story of the Pacific war makes depressing reading. It has been the story of an aggressive war by the Japanese, and for the first time we, are now moving in the opening stage of that great campaign to which we must consecrate our lives. “The Solomons battle shows America’s strength and her confidence that she can roll the Japanese up.”