ISSUES AT STAKE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 19 August 1942, Page 4

ISSUES AT STAKE

IN SOLOMONS CAMPAIGN JAPANESE MAY ATTEMPT COUNTER-OFFENSIVE. SEA POWER THE DETERMINING FACTOR. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. With the first phase of the battle for the Solomons concluded, the consolidation of established positions by the Allied land forces continues. This is believed here to be certain to involve difficult fighting in mountains and jungles and the outcome ot the second phase will depend largely on the strength the Japanese are able to muster for a counter-offensive. Sea power will again be the determin-

ing factor. War correspondents point out that the Allied forces must press their attacks against the Japanese bases at Bougainvilles Island and Rabaul in order to confirm the initial successes. The renewal of large-scale enemy air attacks on Port Moresby, coinciding with the steady tightening of the Allied grip on the Solomons, is interpreted as a reassuring sign that the enemy’s hold on the major bases in the Solomons is weakening. It is believed that, with the loss of airfields on Tulagi and Guadalcanal', the Japanese have air-ferried their major bombing strength back to New Britain and New Guinea. The danger to Port Moresby, far from being relieved by the Solomons attack, is considered to be intensified. “Japan cannot afford to allow, the consolidation of Papua and the Solomons to become an immediate threat to Rabaul,” says the “Sydney Herald’s’ military correspondent. “She must increase her activities ira New Guinea, as much to provide a diversion to the Solomons now as to prevent the loss of Rabaul at some later stage. Her effort cannot be to limited to patrol skirmishes in the north ranges and a fight for the small landing field at Kokoda. So much is at stake that she must hit at Port Moresby by every possible means, by land, and air and maybe by sea.”