PACIFIC COMMANDS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 September 1943, Page 3

PACIFIC COMMANDS

GENERAL MACARTHUR’S POSITION AMERICAN WAR SECRETARY ANSWERS QUESTIONS. OVERLAPPING NOT SUGGESTED. ißv Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) WASHINGTON, September 23. Responding to questions at a Press conference about General MacArthur s recent statement, the Secretary of War, Mr Stimson, said he knew of no plans to call General MacArthur home for a conference. He added: “General MacArthur is very busily engaged and is very active in very, important operations. I doubt if he would want to leave at this time. People from here are all the time going out to see him. ’ Reporters asked whether Admiral Mountbatten’s South-east Asia Command would overshadow or overlap General MacArthur’s South-West Pacific theatre. Mr Stimson replied: "I have never heard it suggested.’ High quarters commenting on General MacArthur’s controversy, say that General MacArthur himself suggested the strategy now operating in the Pacific and the major blows at present being delivered under his command. If General MacArthur’s statement has puzzled the public, it has puzzled officialdom fully as much. However curious its terms, General MacArthur’s statement is regarded in Washington as answering Australian newspapers and possibly Senator Chandler, says the United Press of America. In the wake of all the clamour over what General MacArthur meant, it can be stated on a high if unquotable authority that, first, no controversy exists between General MacArthur and the High Command; secondly, nothing happened at Quebec changing General MacArthur’s status; and, thirdly, General MacArthur's strategic plan was adopted virtually intact at Casablanca and the details were settled at a subsequent Pacific staff officers’ conference. The Associated Press of America points out that the position of General MacArthur’s command has been clarified by the London announcement defining Admiral Mountbatten’s and General MacArthur’s areas. Eventually, it says, some adjustment of responsibility may be necessary, but both must retake large portions of conquered territory before their respective theatres can conceivably overlap. Bothapparcan conceivably overlap. Both appearinto the China Sea.