Long Grim Fight In S.W. Pacific Area

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 195, 19 August 1942, Page 5

Long Grim Fight In S.W. Pacific Area

CHALLENGE TO JAPS.

Too Dangerous To Be Taken Without Strong Retaliation

(Lnited Press Association.—Copyright.— Rec. 1 p.m.) • | - • NEW YORK, August 18. A long grim fight in the South-west Pacific is expected as » , ! , »" cc «»'ul attack in the Solomons by American marines backed by a ir and aea forces, says the New S Su! Washington correspondent. The challenge to Japan is too full of unpleasant implication, f or , h e Japanese to accept American domination in Tulag, and surrounding islands without a major .fort to thr situation. At the same time this American wtory „ but the first step in the Allied counter-drive agains" Japan says the correspondent. Its value lies in the position it gives the United Nations forces for further attacks. Behind the official phraseology of yesterday's navy communique lie hundreds of stor.es of ind.v.dual daring and closerange fighting mvolv.ng cruisers and destroyers in the pitch darkness and of landing operations carried through with that thoroughness which is characteristic of the marines.

Field,ng Eliot, writ.ng in the Herald-Tribune, says that whatever the outcome of the Solomons attack, and whatever may be the future pol.cy adopted on the western front in Europe the actual attack in one case, and the preparation for it in the other h.ye at least served not.ee on Japan and Germany. This notice W that the good old days in which those Powers could concentrate as they chose against a selected opponent, while enjoying security elsewhere, are at an end. . , "J?" h, ""f Government .pokesman at Chungking rfecl.red *•' ' h k e U J"'t d ®tatea action in the Solomon, had greatly lengthened China s confidence in the might and unlimited possibihties of an American offensive. It was an epoch-making battle which had drawn a substantial portion of the Japanese naval, air and land forces from mid-Pacific, and would inevitably force Japan to revise her continental plans.