LIMITED AID

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 April 1943, Page 3

LIMITED AID

TO BE SENT TO GENERAL MACARTHUR ACCORDING TO WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT MEANING OF MR STINSON’S PROMISE. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) (Received This Day, Noon.) NEW YORK, April 16. “General MacArthur will receive air reinforcements only( to the extent necessary to implement Southern Pacific plans as developed at Casablanca. These plans will govern general (operations in Australian and other Pacific areas for the next several months.” —This statement is made by the United Press Washington correspondent, quoting official sources. The correspondent adds that General MacArthur was apprised of these plans and officials in Washington are at a loss to understand his plea for more supplies. The planes promised by Mr Stimson are those allotted id the South-West Pacific at a recent Washington conference, the correspondent says, and do not constitute any additional allocation. While a majority of the American papers continue to stress the need for a rapid delivery of additional war supplies, particularly combat aircraft, to the South-West Pacific, some commentators are frankly sceptical of the urgency of Australia’s plea. “The divergence of views expressed in Washington and in Australia creates an unfortunate state of doubt and consequently of apprehension,” writes Dewitt Mackenzie, Associated Press war commentator. “Washington believes that the Japanese operations in the Southern Pacific have passed from the offensive to an aggressive defence. If the Allies at this critical juncture divert any considerable amount of their striking power from Europe to hit Japan, they might be handing Hitler a free ticket to victory.” DR. EVATT GIVES FACTS. ' Dr. Evatt has deprecated general ’American misconceptions of Allied striking power in the Southern Pacific. He referred particularly to American Press accounts of action by aircraft. “Eighty tons is the greatest weight of bombs dropped in any one raid in the South-West Pacific—not very much as compared with the thousand-ton raids on German cities,” he said. “Our heaviest raid an Rabaul was made by only 37 aircraft.” Dr. Evatt added that it was not a question of whether Australia was receiving as much aid as she could wish for her defence, but of (whether the fruits of Allied production were at all times being directed to securing a maximum dividend of enemy loss. On that ground alone the South-West Pacific had irrefutable claims to additional supplies.