PACIFIC FRONTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1943, Page 3

PACIFIC FRONTS

AMERICAN MINISTER’S TOUR REGRET EXPRESSED IN AUSTRALIA. VISIT WOULD HAVE BEEN ’ TIMELY. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) SYDNEY, February 2. In an editorial headed “Two Fronts in the South Pacific,” the “Sydney Morning Herald” deplores the fact that the 20,000 miles’ air journey of the United States Naval Secretary, Colonel Knox, did not include a brief visit to Australia. “While Colonel Knox’s purpose,” it sayd, “was to inspect the American bases of Admiral Halsey’s South Pacific Command, it is a pity that he was unable to make direct contact with the Australian Government,” it says. “Onlylast week Mr. Curtin was appealing to America for ‘naval and air strength in this theatre adequate to the plans of the commander,’ and Colonel Knox could have been informed at first hand of needs and hopes in the South-Wes( Pacific. ■ “The buoyant tone of the colonel’s statement does not suggest that the official misgivings lately expressed in Australia about the growth of Japanese power in the southern Pacific are shared in the area which he toured. The contrast, indeed, is remarkable. Coloned Knox’s tour and his comments following on the recent warnings of possible enemy thrusts toward Australia deepen the impression that a sharp dividing line is drawn between the South Pacific and the South-West Pacific areas. “While emphasis is being laid in this zone on the Japanese concentrations, American commentators are examining the likelihood of Allied aggressive action in the South Pacific. One effect of all this mystification must be to keep the Japanese guessing as to where and when the Allies, as their plans mature, intend to deliver their main offensive blows.” BURDENED CHINA IN DANGER OF ECONOMIC COLLAPSE. ACCORDING TO AMBASSADOR’S WIFE. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) NEW YORK, February 1. “The Chinese resistance to the Japanese aggression is facing collapse because of the Allies’ failure to send the promised food and munitions,” said Madam Wellington Koo, wife of ’ the Chinese Ambassador to London, in a speech at Philadelphia. “China is nearer to collapse on the economic front than at any other time during the war,” she said. “If the Chinese' Government were forced to negotiate a peace it will not be because the soldiers shirked fighting. They have fought practically without guns, planes and ammunition. It will be because the people are ravaged by sickness and starving in the streets,. their hope gone and with it the spirit to carry on.” A Chunking communique reports that 1000 Japanese troops were killed or wounded in heavy fighting which opened on the Buma-Yunnan border on Thursday. The Chinese losses were considerable.