ON THE DEFENSIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 10 August 1943, Page 2

ON THE DEFENSIVE

JAPAN IN THE PACIFIC STATEMENT BY GENERAL MACARTHUR. ALLIED SUCCESS MODEST BUT DECISIVE. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) SYDNEY, August 9. “Japan on the Pacific front has exhausted her fullest resources. The concentrated attack of which she was capable has failed and she is now on the defensive,” said General MacArthur today. “This defensive will yield in proportion as we gather force and definition. When that will be I do not know, but it is certain. I make no prediction as to time or detail. We are doing what we can with what we have. “Our resources are still very limited, but the results of our modest but continuous success in the campaign have been cumulative to the point of being vital. The measure of their potentiality can be obtained by imagining the picture to have been reversed, with the enemy capturing Guadalcanal and besieging Port Moresby, rather than we in possession of Munda ahd at the gates of Salamaua. “Such a contrast would have meant defeat for us in the war for the Pacific. The margin was close, but it was conclusive. Though for many reasons our victories may have been lacking in glamorous focus, they have been decisive of final result in the Pacific.”