ALLIED LEADERS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 304, 23 December 1943, Page 5

ALLIED LEADERS

COMMAND CHANGES Speculations On Meetings In Pacific Ann Middle East I Rec. 10.30 a.m. NEW YORK, Dec. 22. General G. C. Marsiiail, Chief of Staff of the United States Army, has conferred with General Mac Arthur, Allied Commander in the South-west Pacific, states a special correspondent, from Sydney. This announcement by General Mac Arthur's spokesman to-day breaks the silence concerning General Marshall's movements after he accompanied President Roosevelt to Cairo and Teheran for the Allied conferences. General Marshall has also conferred with General Sir Thomas Blarney, the Australian Commander-in-Chief in New Guinea, and Admiral Chester Nimitz, the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Pacific Fleet, and other Allied leaders. General Marshall's conferences with Pacific commanders emphasise dramatically the increasing tempo ot the campaigns against the Japanese, says the Associated Press Washington correspondent. Informed quarters believe that General Marshall gave General Mac Arthur and Admiral Nimitz some indication ot the prospects of shifting greatly-increased lorces to the Pacific. The New York Times correspondent at Pearl Harbour says that the importance of the conferences cannot be over-estimated. .Geneial Marshall's meetings emphasised the growing importance of the United States Army in the Pacific war The prospect of General MacArthur Allied Commander-in-Chief in the South-west Pacific, leaving soon for America has been heavily discounted in oilicial circles, lhis v ew s the outcome of an American message referring to the growing feehns that General Mac Arthur mfght B assent to nomination for the Presidency of the United States. -General Mac Arthur's great ambition is to plant tne American flag once again on Batan," was how his vtewswere summarised at a conferZnre to day The Australian Governmonwealth would have to he consulted.