LONG & HARD

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 October 1943, Page 4

LONG & HARD

TASK FACING ALLIES IN PACIFIC AMERICAN ADMIRAL’S VIEW REVIEW OF RECENT OPERATIONS (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.35 a.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The war in the Pacific would be long and expensive, declared Rear-Admiral D. E. Barbey, commander of the amphibious force of the Seventh Fleet of the United States Navy. He commanded the naval task force which participated in the recent attacks on Lae and Finschhafen, in Northern New Guinea. Admiral Barbey said the Allies had scarcely scratched the enemy yet, in comparison with what remained to be done. As we moved closer, the Japanese would fight back harder. “Inevitably, to push the enemy back involves to some extent a programme of what has been wrongly called ‘island hopping',” he added. “We can expect to bypass a number of points; but in view of the nature of the enemy's conquests we have to tackle separated points in an almost regular procession. The prospect we face is one of recapturing a number of strongholds, separated by stretches of ocean. However, we do not intend to sit tight in the South-West Pacific. We are working in close co-operation with Admiral Halsey in the South Pacific and we are going to keep moving. We have started to roll back the Japanese, but we have a long way to go.”