Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1943. ALL=OUT WAR AGAINST JAPAN.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 March 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, MARCH 29, 1943. ALL=OUT WAR AGAINST JAPAN.

THERE was more than a hint of contempt, as well as of indignation, in the rebuke by the British I oreign becretaiy (Mr. Eden) in Washington of “an isolationist insinuation ia the British are chiefly interested in the defeat of the Nazis and will leave America to fight Japan alone.” In any part of tne Empire, and not least in the Pacific Dominions, an insinuation of this kind only needs to be stated to be branded as piepos m ous, but the accompanying matter of the message in whic i x i. Eden’s timely and emphatic rebuke was reported sugges s < ideas on the subject are not defined in the United States by any means as clearly as could be desired.. For instance, the Washington correspondent of the. New York Sun” was quoted as stating that “Mr. Churchill has produced in some quarters an impression that Britain is weakening in her .pledge to mobilise all of the Empire’s might after the defeat of Hitler for the war against Japan” and further that: — . There is no use concealing the disappointment which is felt here that the British Government has not concurred with the American, view regarding the necessity for all-out war against Japan. Here is Britain’s Prime Minister notifying Japan that he does not ' expect the United Nations to force Japan to surrender before Hitler, and that even when Hitler surrenders the entire strength oi tne United Nations will not be available for the second task. . . . Hie better way would be to allocate more force to the Pacific, so that Japan’s collapse may come contemporaneously with Hitler s. The answer to all this is that Britain is pledged most definitely to all-out war on Japan, that Mr. Churchill in his speech did not say one word to imply any weakening of that pledge and that the considerable measure of priority now given to the war in Europe and in Africa is given by Britain and the United States jointly and in full agreement. This last point is made manifest, despite the secrecy in which details of Allied stiategy are shrouded, by the official announcement that at Casablanca, little more than two months ago. President Roosevelt and Mi. Churchill, with their principal’military advisers in atttendance, reached complete agreement on offensive plans for the current year. It is simply astounding that in those circumstances any American newspaper or newspaper writer of good standing should suggest that Britain is thinking of anything else than all-out war against Japan at the earliest opportunity. Apart from the question of priority of campaigns, in regard to which the United States obviously has the same responsibility as Britain, those ,who allege, quite erroneously, some weakening on Britain’s part apparently rely on Mr. Churchill’s reference to partial demobilisation after the defeat of Hitler —his statement that there would then be “large numbers ot British and no doubt American soldiers whom it would not be physically possible to employ across the vast distances and poor communications of the Japanese war.” This followed, howevei, upon'the British Prime Minister’s declaration that, with Hitlerism overthrown, we shall immediately proceed to transport all the necessary additional forces and apparatus to the other side of the world to punish the greedy and cruel empire of Japan, to rescue China from her long torment, to free all our own territory and that of our Dutch allies, and to drive the Japanese menace for ever from Australian, New Zealand and Indian shores. That will be our first and supreme task and nothing must lure us from it. This is an unequivocal assurance that Britain, at the earliest practicable opportunity, will attack Japan with all the force she can move into the Pacific. It is an extraordinarily perverted ingenuity that has found in this plain, honest and uncompromising' statement of policy any evidence of British weakening in regard to Japan.