"TRIFLE MYSTERIOUS"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 35, 11 February 1943, Page 5

"TRIFLE MYSTERIOUS"

British Press Comment On Jap. Withdrawal RABAUIi MUST BE NEXT AIM N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 12.30 p.m. LONDON, Feb. 10. "A trifle mysterious" is the Manchester Guardian's comment on the news from the South-west Pacific. The paper adds: "It is not that the Japanese have evacuated Guadalcanal but that the American Navy is now said to have information that the Japanese may be evacuating the whole of the Solomons, in whose northern islands they have a strong foothold. But why should the Japanese leave the Solomons? Last week the American Navy Department announced that new Japanese naval activities indicated 'a major effort to regain control of the entire Solomons area,' and the Australian Government thought there were signs of a fresh threat to Australia. "If the Japanese are quitting the Solomons, it will not be because of the loss of men—for those casualties mean little to them—though it might be because of losses of aircraft and shipping. But since the principle with them should be one to make the Allies fight as long as possible at the extreme point of the Japanese defences, we must await news that confirms and explains." The Daily Telegraph sees the withdrawal as a "decisive defeat." It indicates that the Allied offensive in Papua and the American attack on the Solomons frustrated Japanese strategy of obtaining bases for breaking the line of communications between America and Australia.

The paper adds: "That enterprise [ has now been abandoned because the wastage of shipping and aircraft is too great for Japan's resources. From America can strike damaging blows, but we must still make our account with a long, hard struggle. To open a wide breach in the Japanese defences of the South Pacific, Rabaul must be recovered by the Allies."