ACTION IN PACIFIC

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 March 1943, Page 4

ACTION IN PACIFIC

MAY. BE SPEEDED DP FOLLOWING ON CONFERENCE IN WASHINGTON. COMBAT COMMANDERS & CHIEFS OF STAFF. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 12.5 p.m.) RUGBY, March 29. The United States War Department announced in Washington that commanders from combat theatres in the Pacific held an important conference in Washington with the United States Chiefs of Staff, writes a correspondent. This apparently foreshadows more vigorous United Nations action in the Pacific. The delegates were headed by Lieut-enant-General Emmons, from Hawaii, and Lieutenant-General Harmon, commander of the United States Army forces in the South Pacific. Representatives of General MacArthur and Admirals Nimitz and Halsey were present. The War Department said: “The meetings were arranged by the joint Chiefs of Staff to acquaint commanders in the Pacific with the policies and plans decided upon at the recent Casablanca conference, which concerned future action in which Pacific combat theatres will be involved. At the same time the Chiefs of Staff were able to obtain first-hand knowledge of developments in the Pacific and to learn the views of commanders in the field.” The correspondent notes that, coincident with the conference, there has been an increase in Allied air and surface activity throughout the Pacific. AUSTRALIA IN PERIL OPINION OF NEW YORK PAPER. MENACING JAPANESE CONCENTRATIONS. (Received This Day, 12.20 p.m.) NEW YORK, March 29. According to the semi-official “Army and Navy Journal,” General MacArthur’s urgent pleas for reinforcements for the South-West Pacific have met with little compliance in Washington. However, the Washington correspondent of the New York “Herald-Tribune” reports: “I have learned from trustworthy sources that Lieutenant-Gen-eral Kenney by no means will be returning to Australia empty-handed from his mission to Washington. While he has not got all the plane reinforcements he requested, nevertheless he has obtained substantial quantities.” In an editorial headed: “Australia in Peril,” the New York “Daily Mirror” says: “In the twelve months since he was sent to Australia, General MacArthur has performed military prodigies with a limited force of men, supplies and planes. In saving Australia he has demonstrated that he is one of the world’s foremost aviation strategists. However, General MacArthur’s brilliance should not hide the fact that Australia is menaced more than ever before. General MacArthur must have planes soon and in numbers to smash the concentrations which the Japanese are massing in scores of places to the north-east and northwest of Australia.”