GREATER FORCES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1943, Page 4

GREATER FORCES

NEEDED IN SOUTHERN PACIFIC AMERICAN & AUSTRALIAN VIEW'S. DARWIN A POSSIBLE ENEMY OBJECTIVE. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright (Received This Day, 12.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The “New York Times” offers no comment on the Japanese damage claims in the Solomons air and naval battle, but says the Tok io report should be read in light of the urgent appeals for aid made by the Federal Premier (Mr Curtin). It expresses the belief that Darwin has become an immediate objective for the enemy forces massing in Timor and adjacent jumping-off places. Australian newspaper correspondents in America say the number of anticlimaxes in the Pacific war has produced among many Americans a feebing that' Australia is continually crying “Wolf!” Nevertheless each Australian warning has been followed by a major engagement, in which Allied forces, generally inferior to those of the enemy, have been able to secure victories. The “New York Journal” declares that the Southern Pacific is a major battle zone and should not be maintained as a mere proving ground for token elements of American land, sea and air forces. The paper praises General MacArthur as a superb strategist, adding: “He is thoroughly capable i of winning the war in the Pacific. He should have an opportunity to win it, and especially he should have the means to win it.” The Japanese'Premier, General Tojo,

has told the House of Peers that Japan is endeavouring to increase her sea transportation capacity by emphasising the construction of standard vessels and wooden vessels. She is also contemplating the use of rafts, according to a Tokio broadcast. This is interpreted as an admission of heavy losses inflicted on the Japanese merchant marine.

It is reported from Canberra that members of the Commonwealth Government are concerned because American critics of the use of the Australian Militia look upon the allocation of specified areas of service as a limitation rather than an extension of the use of the home forces. They point out that the militia is only a small proportion of Australia’s armed forces. It is felt that sufficient emphasis has not been placed abroad on the fact that the A.I.F. can and will, if required, serve in any theatre of war.