The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ABE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1942. U.S.A. AND PACIFIC WAR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 254, 27 October 1942, Page 2

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ABE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1942. U.S.A. AND PACIFIC WAR

'P' I K public il v now being given in the United States to the shortages and shuriciiiiniifrs <>f American forces in the Pacific is unpleasantly i '■iiiiiii.M'ent of discussions which, many times in the past, have raged about ihf. linti.-Ji conduct, of the war. The underlying causes are similar. Neither ii,iti..ll was prepared, when war came to it, for the kind of war ulni h developed. Kadi for various reasons, including reasons of prestige, was compelled to try to do too much, and in consequence spread its lorn.; Hun. K.icli. while carrying on the war abroad, had to grapple with pi ' due' ion problems at home. Kach was handicapped by shipping 111 11 ii.uill e . w 11 ii 11 enemy action continually increased. Each had ■ '■numerable oilier problems, including that of choosing leaders, and of ' |» 1.1■ riu them wlan they tailed. Theoretically it ought to be possible { 00. e 11: e In i leader- at t!ie outset, but in practice no preliminary b I lli.it . hi bo devi ed can be equal to the supreme test of battle. 11 a \ ill ■_* been longer at war, and having suffered many reverses, Britain has advanced tin ther toward a solution of these various problems than the I'nifed Slates, and liriti.-h people will appreciate more keenly than most the ledum's of disappointment and frustration which supervene u in n plans ,t'o aw ry. Whatever may bo the various other factors which have brought about the present situation in the Solomons, the major factor is the lonstant, one of the enemy's naval strength. That strength was not 11 flic tent to prevent the United States marines from landing and i .tahlidiuig themselves in the Tulagi area, but it has proved sufficient io pin them down there. It has not been sufficient to prevent reinforcements reaching the Americans, but it has enabled the remnants of the original Japanese garrison to be built up and supplied. If it be asked why the Japanese naval strength is superior (though not decisively upenor) the answer is, in part, that the United States Navy is serving in other oceans besides the Pacific, and its forces in the Pacific cannot afel.v be concentrated in one area. The other part of the answer is i hat the force which Vice-Admiral Ghormlev commanded in the Solomons area has suffered considerable losses. Apparently his supersession is due to a conclusion that he did not make the best use of his force.

What. nn\v is tlie situation, and what is the prospect? The situation appears to bo that, larking adequate air and sea support, the land forces in the Tulagi area can do little but hold on, and, as the Japanese land forces are increasing, the task of holding on is growing in difficulty. The prospect of strengthening the naval force, and that of supplying and reinforcing the troops, which is also in part a naval problem, cannot be judged in the absence of information necessarily kept secret. Fundamentally it depends on the degree of importance which the United States High Command attaches to t.fcc Solomons operations, and to the Pacific war as a whole. That, unfortunately, is still in doubt. The explanations of the difficulties of the Pacific war which are now being given the United States by Major Hanson Baldwin would hardly have been necessary if the authorities in Washington had been able to devote, or had felt justified In devoting, the greater part of their attention to it..' If their attention is preoccupied by the needs of the developing situation in Europe and Africa the Pacific may have to wait a long time for forces sufficient to repulse the Japanese, or even to prevent them from resuming their advance.