COOLIE SLAVES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 38, 15 February 1943, Page 3

COOLIE SLAVES

JAP. ILL-TREATMENT

Speculation On Future Strategy In Pacific

N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. noon. SYDNEY, this day. Brutal ill-treatment of their coolie labourers has been proved against the Japanese now retiring from Wau, in New Guinea goldfields area. There is also strong evidence that a Japanese shot some coolies. Many were left to starve. , "Those who got safely to the Australian lines told a grim story of slave conditions under which they were driven over the mountain tracks of this wild country," writes the Sydney Morning Herald war correspondent. "Their scarred hands bleeding feet, bruised bodies and ulcerated -sores confirmed their stories of brutal flogging and lack of medical care." An Australian officer, who saw numbers of these coolies brought in, said: "Their stories matched too closely to leave any doubts as to their treatment."

Menace To Australia May Be Gone With no fresh news of the pattern of skirmishes by the heavy naval forces in the South Pacific, the feeling is growing that the Japanese may have decided to postpone the day of decisive battle. The belief in Australia is that, with the halting of her career of conquest, Japan may conserve her surface warship strength and instead conduct intensified submarine warfare in an effort to cut shipping supply lines in Australian waters. ,•-... "For a time at least the menace which threatened this country from the north has been removed, said the Commander-in-Chief of the Land Forces, General Sir Thomas Blarney, in a message to the Australian This view is shared by another notable Australian, Sir Keith Murdoch, chairman of directors of. the Melbourne Herald Company, in a featured article in that paper. Sir Keith Murdoch expresses the opinion that the invasion of Australia or New Zealand has never been a primary part of Japan's Pacific strategy. Emphasising the great restraint exercised by her war planners, Sir Keith Murdoch says: "Japan had no. intention of putting down large armies at the end of long sea passages like balls attached to a string. She has instead conserved her mam naval power, developed her defences throughout her conquests, and has been sparing, too, in her expenditure of aeroplanes. It is clear that at no time has a force been assembled for a mainland operation and that Japan's preoccupation has been in the establishment of fortified bases. "The New Guinea campaigns must be put in their right perspective. They have entailed major efforts by Allied forces much stronger than those of the Japanese, thereby accepting the enemy strategy of containing and wearing out a large Allied army." Must Fight For Everything A grim view of the likely course of the Pacific war is that of ViceAdmiral Sir Conrad Helfrich, Commander of the Netherlands Forces in the Far East, now visiting Australia. Vice-Admiral Helfrich, whose attacks on the advancing Japanese early last year earned him the title of ' Ship-a-day Helfrich," adds that the Allies are opposed to an enemy of great strength, efficiency, determination and self-sacrifice. Military commentators in the two countries emphasise that the recent Allied victories in Papua and Guadalcanar have made no vital changes to the earlier strategic position in the area. Japan's great defensive arc around her conquered territories is seen as still unbroken and, indeed, as substantially strengthened. These local victories, however, have won increased security for Australia and New Zealand and their supply lines rfrom America.