"BOOST" MORALE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 237, 7 October 1942, Page 3

"BOOST" MORALE

JAPANESE REPORTS

No Allied Confirmation Of

Big Naval Battle

Spoi ial Australian Correspondent I ii i ted Press Association—Copyright

SYDNEY, Oct. 6. Hie Berlin radjo, following yesterday s Tokyo announcement, now states that a great naval battle is being fought off the Solomons, but the report is regarded here with scepticism. London denies knowledge of any large-scale Pacific naval action, and the United States Navy Department has declined to comment on this report or on a statement by a Japanese navy spokesman, Captain Hiraide, that operations in the Solomons had cost the United States "several aircraftcarriers, 10 transports and 10 other naval craft."

Hiraide's statement is regarded here as one intended for morale boosting and home consumption. One of the most promising changes in the Pacific situation is that since her disastrous losses at Midway Japan has not shown any willingness to meet the Americans in a large-scale action.

"In the South-west Pacific she is now carrying this to a point where it is interfering with her land strategy," says the Sydney Morning Herald's military correspondent today. "Japan can hardly hope to achieve any further gains and, perhaps, cannot even maintain her earlier conquests, unless she is prepared to accept the hazard of a major naval battle.