NOT NEGLECTED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 268, 12 November 1942, Page 6

NOT NEGLECTED

PACIFIC WAR ZONE Probable Effect Of African Coup On Japan Special Australian Correspondent N'.Z. Press Association.—Copvright Rec. noon. SYDNEY, this day. i The Allied successes in North Africa will considerably affect the war in the South Pacific, in the opinion of war commentators both in Australia and in the United j States. Informed American observers .-a.v Washington is thoroughly seized ;<'f the vital importance of the South Pacific theatre, and there is now no I car that it will be neglected. 1' i> clear that lor many months America has been transporting troops and equipment to Britain in pt eparat ion for the assault on 1* l ance s North African colonies. -Now that the initial invasion has been carried out a great armada of warships and merchant vessels will he released to augment Pacific supply lines to Australia and New Zealand " suggests the New York editor of tlie Sydney Daily Telegraph. The re-establishment of Allied control in the Mediterranean would profoundly influence the Pacific war against Japan. Mr. David Lawrence, a New York Sun columnist, says it would mean that sea power would no longer have to travel around the ( ape ol (lood Hope, Using valuable e.-iort. ships needed for Atlantic patrols. AI last the very long United Nations supply line to Kgypt, Iran, India. China and Australia will have been shortened oy 7000 to 10,000 utiles as the old Suez route to India is restored. The opportunity would also be provided of landing huge quantities of munitions and equipment in Yugoslavia and Greece, where the local guerilla force could provide the necessary manpower un I the spot. j

The establishment of Allied landbased air power along the North African coast, dominating the Mediterranean, would enable a speedy transfer of British warships to reinforce the Allied naval strengths in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. This in turn would enable the movement of American warships from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

With prospects of an Allied drive against Burma also considerably enhanced, Japan may be forced to reconsider her entire war strategy. Observers here feel that Japan, if she is to retrieve her position in the South-west Pacific, must act swiftly and with even greater force than she has yet mustered. An interval of a few months may see her beset with many problems along the 8000 miles front in both the Pacific and the Indian Oceans.