PACIFIC WAR PICTURE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 March 1943, Page 4

PACIFIC WAR PICTURE

NOT STARTLINGLY NEW MACARTHUR'S COMMUNIQUE. AUSTRALIAN COMMENT. (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received This Day, 12.25 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. “Generalised warnings, military or political, are no substitute for the facts in creating a firm national morale,” declares the “Sydney Morning Herald” today, commenting editorially on the “ambiguously worded” section of General MacArthur's latest communique. The paper acknowledges security reasons for General Headquarters enforced reticence as to the purpose of the Japanese concentrations north of Australia, but adds that, if the position has suddenly and inexplicably changed for the worse, the public should be told so in plain terms. Pointing out that enemy air and ground strength in the island perimeter north of Australia has never represented more than a fraction of Japan’s total military' and air forces the “Herald” says that, if General MacArthur's statement means that the Japanese are now making the Southern Pacific their principal theatre of operations, Australia and New Zealand as well would indeed have grave cause for alarm. Australian war commentators continue to speculate on the implications of General MacArthur’s statement but most are agreed that the latest Pacific war picture is not startlingly new. It was approximately the same five weeks ago, when political circles warned that Japan’s Southern Pacific strength was greater than at any time since the war began. The possibility of Japanese offensives against limited island objectives, or more remotely against the Australian mainland, is generally admitted, but there is a strong body of opinion among war observers that Japan, with many victories to consolidate, is building a stout island wall above Australia, primarily for defence. Nevertheless if Japan’s purpose is primarily defensive her strength is sufficient for a major offensive.

War correspondents say a “powerful enemy air armada” is concentrated around an island arc or within one day’s flight. Similarly naval and transport shipping detachments are so situated as to be able to come into the sea at short notice, to support any major move. Heavy Allied air attacks on scattered Japanese bases are conceded to have slowed up, but not substantially checked, their development. These air attacks are imposing a heavy strain upon Australia’s air resources, and emphasise again the prime need for substantial aircraft reinforcement in this theatre. The latest disclosures confirm again the urgent force of Australia's earlier appeals for more bombers, with which to batter enemy island strongpoints.