Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1943. WAR PLANS FOR 1943

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 January 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age THURSDAY, JANUARY 28, 1943. WAR PLANS FOR 1943

ALL members of the grand alliance of the United Nations will be heartened, and would be steeled in determination if that 'were necessary, by the news, inade public yesterday, of the momentous ten-day conference at Casablanca at which Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt, with their military and other advisers, reached complete agreement “on war plans for 1943 to bring about the unconditional surrender of the Germans, Italians and Japanese.” Of the details of these plans, as was to be expected, nothing whatever has been disclosed. The Allies naturally will make the most of every opportunity that is open to them of springing shattering and unpleasant surprises on the enemy. Satisfactory assurances are given, however, that the Allies will be content with nothing less than the complete destruction of totalitarian gangsterdom. The position reached is summed up in President Roosevelt’s declaration that “a world-wide offensive would be vigorously prosecuted and all possible aid would be given to Russia and China,” and in another passage in the reports which reads: — The President and the Prime Minister and Combined Staffs, having completed their plans for the offensive campaign of 1943, have now separated in order to put them into active and concerted execution. While official statements on the conference and its outcome are cast in broadly general terms, they appear to justify the observation of the New Zealand Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) that:— It is not necessary to emphasise for us in the Pacific the importance of the message sent by the President and the Prime Minister to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. It’ is clear that the Pacific situation was thoroughly discussed and its importance appreciated. New Zealand will hail with delight the promise to send to the brave and indomitable Chinese the support they so urgently need. Grounds thus appear for believing that before 1943 is very much older, the demand made emphatically by the Australian Prime Minister (Mr Curtin) for greater naval and air strength to sup- * port the forces now fighting Japan in the Pacific will be satisfied. In some early comments in Britain and the United States on the Casablanca Conference, regret has been expressed that it did not result in the creation of a Supreme Allied War Council. It is shown, however, that the English-speaking Allies' are working in the closest and most intimate contact with Russia and China and have pledged themselves specifically not only to give the effective aid to China which will count so heavily in bringing Japan to defeat, but to make it their prime object to draw as much of the weight as possible off the Russian armies* by engaging the enemy as heavily as possible. This course isplemanded imperatively, equally as a matter of loyalty to valiant and faithful allies and from a standpoint of mere self-interest. The magnificent effort Russia is making in her present winter offensive can only be made to count with maximum effect as a contribution to final victory if her allies play their full part in the policy of “determined, unrelenting, smashing attack” to which President Roosevelt has declared they are committed. Precisely the same is true of China in her indomitable stand against Japan. She has in her own right every possible claim to support, and given that support she is capable of doing much to hasten the extirpation of international brigandage in the Pacific. It has been well said that the Western Allies must do in 1943 what they were not able to do in 1942. An unqualified acceptance of that standpoint and of all that it implies in powerful offensive action is the indicated basis of the decisions reached at Casablanca.