WAR IN PACIFIC

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 August 1943, Page 4

WAR IN PACIFIC

COMMENT ON MACARTHUR’S STATEMENT MOST OPTIMISTIC HE HAS YET MADE. JUSTIFIED BY ALLIED SUCCESSES. (Special Australian Correspondent.) (Received This Day, 11.45 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. General MacArthur’s statement of the certainty of Allied victory in the Pacific was the most optimistic he had made since coming to Australia seventeen months ago. The statement is interpreted to mean that although the end is now in Allied hands, the time the winning of victory will take is depend-

ent on the means provided. An official spokesman at General MacArthur’s headquarters said the successes referred to in the statement dated from the announcement on March 1 that the enemy had taken up “a position in readiness.” Landmarks in the chain of Allied successes since March 1 were the Bismarck Sea battle on March 30, which was probably thj turning point in the Japanese southward advance; the repulse of the enemy attacks on Wau in central New Guinea, in the middle of May; the occupation of Rendova, Kiriwina and Woodlark Islands, beginning on June 30; the taking of Mubo, in Northern New uinea. on July 14; and several naval actions through the whole period; as well as air actions, from Sourabaya, in Java, to Kavieng, in New Ireland, and the New Georgia Group. In a succession of defeats during the past five months, the Japanese had sustained heavy naval and air losses. Allied round the clock bombing has disrupted their supply movement on the front extending from Sourabaya to the Solomons. The ineffective resistance to the latest American Central Solomons thrust is interpreted as evidence of waning Japanese power in certain categories. Constant night attempts by small destroyer forces to run the Allied blockade suggest that if Japan is not yet seriously short of naval and mercantile power, at least she lacks air resources to give her ships adequate protection. Rarely during recent months have the Japanese been able to match Allied air forces numerically in combat. Some commentators suggest that their apparent inability to produce new plane types rising to the quality of Allied aircraft indicates serious factory deficiencies. Mr Curtin has now said he does not think it is possible for Japan to bomb Australian cities from aircraft-carriers, since Allied air and naval strength is sufficient to ensure interception. He added that responsibility rests on the Allied commanders in the Pacific, as soon as the requisite strength is available, to launch a series of limited offensives against the Japanese, in order to drive them back and increase the security of Allied territories.