Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1943. ACTION AGAINST JAPAN.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 June 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 1943. ACTION AGAINST JAPAN.

JN itself the statement made on Thursday by the Federal Prime Minister on the changed outlook in the war against Japan will the more readily carry conviction since no Allied leader lias shown himself less inclined than Mr Curtin to be carried away by unwarranted, optimism. Indeed, he has been accused at times of exhibiting an opposite tendency. After a conference with General MacArthur, Mr Curtin has said, not only that he does not'think the enemy can now invade Australia, though the Commonwealth is not yet immune from marauding raids, but that he feels that the pressure on Australia is about to be thrown back on the enemy. I believe, he added, “that we can hold Australia, as a base from which to launch both limited and major offensives.” Besides implying pretty clearly the present and prospective allocation of additional air strength to the Pacific which Mr Curtin and his colleagues have long sought, this no doubt should be read in conjunction with an announcement made this week by the United States Secretary for the Navy (Colonel Knox) : On the South Pacific front, one of the strongest American fleets ever assembled keeps watch and prepares for fresh activity. Account of course has to be taken also of Mr Churchill s recent statement that the Allies are now in a position to prosecute the war with equal vigour in Europe and in the Pacific. On a number of occasions recently, the Japanese Prime Minister (General Tojo) and other Japanese spokesmen have declared their belief that the outcome of the war will be determined this year. As an American commentator has observed, t his means, at its face value, that the Japanese militarists are allowing themselves little more than six months in which to win or lose the war. No doubt it means also that if the Japanese war lords can see anywhere an opening for attack by which'.they might hope to improve their position, they will draw freely on their whole available resources, and perhaps be prepared to gamble desperately, on an attempt to turn that opportunity to account. Whether such an opportunity exists, however, is another question. It counts for a great deal that since she was defeated heavily, and from her own standpoint disastrously in the Midway Island battle a year ago, Japan has won no major success, has not even attempted a major offensive at any point, and has suffered a series of more or less damaging, def eats, notably in Guadalcanal, New Guinea, the Bismarck Sea, the Aleutians and the Yangtse valley. Iler one definite success since Midway has been in the limited campaign in north-western Burma. Although this enemy success, in its proportions, was real, it has not altered the prospect that before long the Allies will undertake with adequate force the reconquest of Burma and the restoration of unimpeded land contact with China. Allowance perhaps has still to be made for the possibility of some desperate stroke by Japan in an effort to retrieve her waning fortunes. The broad position, however, seems to be that she is now everywhere held, that she is menaced at a number of points, and that she has suffered and continues to suffer naval, merchant shipping and air losses which she cannot hope to make good.