AIMS IN PACIFIC

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 July 1943, Page 4

AIMS IN PACIFIC

DISCUSSED IN WASHINGTON TASK OF GENERAL MacARTHUR’S FORCES. SUGGESTED ALTERNATIVES. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) NEW YORK, July 11. Qualified observers in Washington are supremely confident that the Allies will attain their immediate objectives in the Pacific offensive, says the Washington correspondent of the “New York Times” but a bigger question remains unanswered. The question is: Are General MacArthur’s forces sufficiently powerful to continue fighting after the fall of their present objectives and until the more important bases to the north and north-west are taken? If General MacArthur’s forces are not strong enough to continue their victorious push, without pausing for recovery reinforcement and consolidation of their newly-won positions, a delay, similar to that following the fall of Guadalcanal, may follow. American strategists envisage the following schedule for an Allied advance: Capture of Bougainville, Buka and Rabaul, with a clean-up of New Guinea possibly accompanying the latter phase. Then comes the big strategic problem —whether we strike boldly northwards towards the main Japanese naval base at Truk, courting a naval engagement with the Japanese fleet, and thence to Tokio, or whether we pause to reclaim the Philippines and the East Indies? The Washington correspondent of the “Wall Street Journal” states that General MacArthur commands the respect of the White House as a strategist. A new Pacific drive is the test of “the island by island” campaign. If Nev/ Guinea and Rabaul topple within four to six months, the theory will have been proved. Otherwise, Allied strategy will be limited to direct punches against Japan from China. This means the retaking of Burma I first.