VAIN HOPES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 June 1943, Page 3

VAIN HOPES

SAID TO BE ENTERTAINED IN JAPAN OF COMPROMISE PEACE WITH ALLIES. ALLIED OFFENSIVE PLANS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK, June 14. Japan’s leaders are aiming at a com promise peace with the Allies, says Hallett Abend, formerly “New York Times’’ correspondent in the Far East. They expect the Allies to be war-weary after bringing Hitler to unconditional surrender, he adds. But any compromise proposed by Japan would leave her in possession of at least half of her present gains. It would be a victory for Japan.

“She would prepare and wait for a new opportunity to attack us. Unless Japan is completely smashed, she will start another war, probably within 20 years.” Commenting on the statement last week by the Australian Prime Minister, Mr Curtin, the New York “HeraldTribune” says: “Mr Curtin’s carefully guarded announcement, though obscure, is almost cheerful. Optimism of any sort from Mr Curtin is so rare that it is bound to raise expectations for the Pacific theatre. The capture of Attu Island, in the Aleutians, seems an obvious preliminary to additional operations. '‘.Some observers are already visualising a grand pincer movement to be launched simultaneously from the Aleutians and from the Australian and other southern Pacific bases. Such visions are premature, as the main route of attack against. Japan is still through Burma and China. “Decisive results in the Pacific theatre cannot be expected in 1943. But it is impossible not to feel that the Pacific, when properly correlated to global strategy, holds important opportunities for offensive action.”

LONG=RANGE AIR POWER USE ADVOCATED BY MAJOR SEVERSKY. NEW YORK, June 13. For some time the aviation industry and science have been ready to supply aircraft that would strike directly from America over the heads of the Japanese Army and Navy and deliver a knockout blow at the heart of Japan, declared the aeroplane manufacturer Major Seversky. He added that if long-range air power was not yet available backward military thinking was to blame. “It is not a question of whether we can or cannot,” he said, “but of making up our minds to do it. Time is on Japan's side while the United Nations continue their surface strategy. We will reverse that when we adopt a strategy based on- air power.”