PACIFIC WILL SEE GREATEST ACTIONS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 66, 18 March 1944, Page 5

PACIFIC WILL SEE GREATEST ACTIONS

OFFENSIVES TO COME Unprecedented Tribute To Allied Leader N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 1 p.m. CANBERRA, this day. One of the greatest offensives of the war would be launched in the South-west Pacific area, said General Mac Arthur, speaking at a State dinner to commemorate the second anniversary of his arrival in Australia. The guests rose and cheered him in the most enthusiastic demonstration ever seen in the Parliamentary dining room.

In an extraordinarily moving speech General Mac Arthur said: "The last two years have been momentous ones for Australia. You have faccd the gravest peril in your history. With your very life at stake you have met and overcome the challenge. It was here that the tide of war turned in the Pacific, and the mighty wave of invasion broke and was rolled back.

"Two years ago when I landed on your soil I said to the people of the Philippines, when I came, '1 shall return.' I repeat those words. Nothing is more certain than our ultimate reconquest and liberation from the enemy of the Philippines and the adjacent lands. Plans for Keconquest "One of the great offensives of the war will, at the appropriate time, be launched for that purpose. With God's help it should be decisive, not only in the redemption of those lands, but of Japanese isolation from southern conquests, and of Chinese restoration of Pacific Ocean communication.

"On such an occasion as this my thoughts go back to those men who went on their last crusade in jungle thicknesses to the north, where they fought the fight that has saved this Continent. With faith in their hearts and hope on their lips they passed beyond the mist that blinds us here.

. "Their yesterday makes possible our to-morrow. They came from the four corners of the world, but whatever the land that gave them birth, under their stark white crosses they now belong to Australia. I thank you for the high honour and the hospitality in their and their comrades' names. I shall always recall it as joined with their immortal memories."

Mr. Curtin, proposing the toast to General Mac Arthur, said that it took skilled leadership amounting to genius, as well as' the valorous and devoted services of all forces under General Mac Arthur's command, to enable Australia to say to the world that this country was still free and able to play its part in the cause of world freedom.