The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and The Sun MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1943. THE "HOLDING WAR"

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 38, 15 February 1943, Page 2

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and The Sun MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1943. THE "HOLDING WAR"

TWO statements within a week, the first by Mr. Churchill in the House of Commons, the second by President Roosevelt in his Lincoln Day address, furnish some indication of the present views of the Allied leaders concerning the war against Japan. The statements differ in emphasis, and for understandable reasons. Mr. Churchill was concerned to make'plain Britain's determination not to rest when Germany is defeated, but "to go on to the end, irrespective of time and cost," until Japan, too, is forced to an unconditional surrender. Meanwhile, "every effort' will be made to keep Japan thoroughly occupied." In the Dominions there has never been any doubt that Britain before now would have diverted greater forces to the Pacific had her Government deemed it practicable and wise, nor any doubt that such forces will be made available when the preoccupation of the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy with the war in Europe, in the Atlantic and in the Mediterranean ends.- But concern has been expressed, notably in Australia, and increasingly in the United States, at the apparent assumption that, when Germany has been crushed, the defeat of Japan will follow speedily and will be easilv accomplished. The contention of the Australian Government, which on this matter probably voices the conclusions of General Mac Arthur, has been that a relatively small increase in-the allocation of Allied forces for use in the Pacific would bring disproportionate gains, that it would not only enable the Japanese threat to the countries of the South-west Pacific to be finally removed but would prevent the Japanese from consolidating their positions so thoroughly as to make their eventual eviction a task long, hard and costly There is in Mr Churchill's statement little indication that the British Government has been influenced by this contention, but Mr. Roosevelt has undoubtedly said a little to satisfy it. The President said that "many roads lead right to Tokyo," and none of them will be neglected, but he declared that "we don't expect finally to defeat Japan by going forward inch by inch, island by island, across the vast expanse of the Pacific." Coming immediately after the announcement that one island, Guadalcanal*, has been virtually cleared of Japanese, this declaration is significant. The President went on to say that great and decisive actions will be taken to drive the Japanese from Chmese soil," and "important actions will be taken in the skies over China, and over Japan itself." This part of the declaration was probably framed to reassure the Chungking Government, which is avowedly dissatisfied with the size and scope of the Allied efforts against Japan. The President has repeatedly affirmed the intention of the United States to keep China in the war. and this declaration repeats the undertaking more positively. There remains the important question of "when." When are these "great and decisive actions" to be taken? On this point no more information is to be gained from the President's statement than from the Prime Minister's; there is no indication that a major offensive action is intended this year. The apparent assumption—we must hope that appearance's are misleading—is that the Japanese themselves will conform to the Allied strategy of a "holding war." It would be a dangerous assumption. The Japanese have evacuated Guadalcanar, but they have established themselves in air and sea bases less than 200 miles to the north. They have been driven out of Papua, but they are established in strength in other parts of New Guinea. Thus their potential danger is little diminished, and even if it could be assumed that their strategy is now defensive they occupy positions which, given time, they will make exceedingly strong. Moreover, experience in the Solomons and Papua suggests strongly that even if by taking, eventually, one of the many roads to Tokyo, the Allies succeeded in cutting off the Japanese forces in any of the islands they have occupied, those forces would fight to the last. This view is supported emphatically by the commander of the Netherlands forces in the Far East, Admiral Helfrich, who has said that "we will have to throw them out of every island." -The prospect is, to say the leasjt. uninviting, particularly to countries, like Australia and New Zealand, whose manpower is small in relation to the enemy's. The case for making a limited increase in Allied allocations to the Pacific war remains strong, and we must hope that the necessarily guarded statements of the President and the Prime Minister conceal a decision to authorise it.