SOUTH PACIFIC NAVAL FORCES

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23971, 11 June 1943, Page 5

SOUTH PACIFIC NAVAL FORCES

“ PREPARING FOR NEW ACTION ” STATEMENT BY U.S. NAVY SECRETARY (B 0.W.) RUGBY, June 9. “The United States Fleet is preparing for new action in the south Pacific,” declared the United States Secretary of the Navy (Colonel Frank Knox), when speaking to a graduating class at the Naval Academy to-day. according to a message from Annapolis. “On the south Pacific front one of the strongest American fleets ever assembled keeps watch and prepares for fresh activity,” he said. “The Allies are making gratifying progress in the Battle of the Atlantic, though that vital sea contest is by no means won.” Commenting on the global nature of the war, Colonel Knox said that there was a lot of irresponsible talk about a second front. There were already eight fronts—the Western Mediterranean, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the South Atlantic, the South Pacific, the North Pacific, the RussianGerman, and the Chinese. “Secret information reveals that the feeling in Tokyo and Berlin at present is akin to ours after Pearl Harbour,” said Colonel Knox. “The initiative and the choice of the place and time for striking are now ours, America is producing thousands of , landing barges this year and you may be sure that we know why we are building them.” He asserted that America would not consent to the scrapping of her vast naval strength after the war.

U.S. DECORATION FOR NEW ZEALANDER

RECONNAISSANCE FLIGHTS (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, June 9. Flight Lieutenant R. C. Buchanan, D.F.C., of Invercargill, who was awarded the United States Air Medal, has been flying long-range Mosquitoes on photographic reconnaissances. He has carried out more than 60 operations in one year over Germany, Ger-man-occupied territories, and Norway. He went to North Africa with an invasion convoy and remained there. He was invested with the medal by MajorGeneral Carl Spaatz, for work he had done for the United States Army early in the campaign. Flight Lieutenant Buchanan was then temporarily attached to a squadron led by Colonel Elliott Roosevelt, the President’s son. He is one of the five officers of the Royal Air Force to receive this decoration. Flight Lieutenant Buchanan received an immediate award of the D.F.C. last March for surprising two Italian cruisers and photographing them from almost mast height. Grumbling in Japan.— The Tokyo radio has rebuked the Japanese for grumbling about food shortages. The radio told listeners to be thankful they were not yet eating rats or crows, like people in Europe, The announcer warned farmers that they must work harder.—New York, June 9.