PACIFIC STRUGGLE OUTLAST EUROPEAN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 74, 29 March 1943, Page 3

PACIFIC STRUGGLE OUTLAST EUROPEAN

MR.- CVRJIWS VIEW

Continued "Holding War" Policy Realised N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 1.30 p.m. SYDNEY, this day. "The truth is that we face a long struggle which will outlast the struggle for Europe," declared the Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, speaking at a rally for Australia's third Liberty Loan of £100,000,000 which closes on April 20. Mr. Curtin acknowledged that the full strength of the United Nations resources could not be swung against Japan unti-1 Hither beaten. This realisation, entailing the continuation of a "holding" war policy in the Pacific, is a subject for editorial review by the Sydney Morning Herald to-day. The paper says that Mr. Churchill's recent reference to partial demobilisation following the defeat of Hitler, which has been severely criticised in some United States quarters, neecl not in itself cause doubt or misgiving.

"It is the intention to prosecute the Pacific war with full vigour and to the absolute conclusion that matters," declares the Sydney Herald. "Mr. Churchill's word that Britain would continue to fight with the utmost energy until the unconditional surrender of Japan, was good enough for President Roosevelt, as it is for all of us who are fighting the Japanese. "If any doubts exist to-day, they concern not the will of Britain or America to wage the Pacific war to a finish but the degree of realisation by Allied leaders in London and Washington of what the , task of crushing Japan will involve, particularly if no major effort can be made to discharge it until after the defeat of Germany. "No change can be made now in the basic global strategy. 'The policy of beating Hitler first' has never been seriously contested, and, in any case, the United Nations are committed to it beyond recall. But what sometimes appears to be overlooked is that the Japanese will not remain passive until the Allies are ready to deal with them. The longer and harder the job of destroying Hitler, the more necessary will it become to make due provision for keeping Japan engaged and preventing her from digging in so deeply that her dislodgment may tax the Allied strength beyond endurance. "What is sought within the framework of the 'holding' war is a means of really holding Japan's power in check, of wearing clown her resources and of preparing the ground for the ultimate combined attack upon her." The Minister for the Army, Mr. Forde, states that at present Japan is building up a force of planes in her island arc north of Australia. He predicts that these planes will be used for heavier attacks on Allied shipping.