The Press TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1943. Fall of Munda

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24022, 10 August 1943, Page 4

The Press TUESDAY, AUGUST 10, 1943. Fall of Munda

Since the dramatic surprise and success of the landings on Eendova and New Georgia, with their sequel in air and sea victories, more than a month has passed before Munda, the immediate goal, has been taken. It has been won by the inchmeal progress of efforts to dislodge or destroy tenacious defenders. The United States Secretary for the Navy, Colonel Frank Knox, has described the process as “slow and "expensive”; and American press comment, reported yesterday, clearly reveals a tendency to dwell on that aspect of its result. Thus the New York “ Herald-Tribune ” believes that Tokyo has as much reason as Washington to congratulate itself. Munda has cost Japan “ 5000 Japanese troops; the sacrifice “ of 100,000 would not be a heavy “ price to pay for the advantage of “ keeping General Mac Arthur busy “ in these inconsequential islands “ for another winter.” The “World- “ Telegram,” working proportional sums on the map of the Pacific, calculates that, if the Solomons opened the only route to Tokyo, the Japanese war “would not end in this “ generation.” These are broodings in which too much is forgotten and one thing, perhaps—the hope of swift and easy triumph raised in the first hours of these operations—too well remembered. What is under-rated, if not forgotten, is the pivotal value of Munda in a move directed at Rabaul, the success of which must carry back the Japanese front hundreds of miles. From this point of view, New Georgia is not merely just another island, and the capture of Munda is not merely just another of the earliest hops m the long, island-hopping way to Japan. The tasks ahead, it is too readily assumed, are all of the same kind, of the same difficulty, and only to be surmounted by the same slow and expensive methods. On the most elementary level, this leaves out of account the gain of advancing General MacArthur’s bomber bases to within 400 miles of Rabaul, and within still easier range of the minor Japanese strongpoints in the northern Solomons. The “ Herald-Tribune ” forgets that, to hold Munda for 35 days, Japan lost far more than the 5000 troops of the garrison: more ships and more aeroplanes than the Emperor has to spare, even if he has troops, literally, to burn. It forgets that, in these “ inconsequential islands ” Japan had levelled a heavy threat against the very foundations of the United Nations’ defensive position in the Pacific. It forgets, perhaps, that north-west of them, along the bridge of New Guinea and Timor, lie the inconsequential Philippines, to which Mac Arthur has sworn to lead his men back. Both the “ World - Telegram ” and the “ Herald - Tribune ” iorget that Guadalcanar cost eight times 35 days, a fact'-significant enough to expose the fallacy of island-hop-ping arithmetic. But, what it is least pardonable to forget, both papers forget General MacArthur’s own plain statement on the subject of Pacific strategy. Others have said something like it since. Thus Colonel Knox, a week ago, asked at a press conference whether the Japanese would have to be prised loose from every coral rock they have fastened upon, replied: “ It is “ not reasonable to assume that the “ offensive method now being fol- " lowed will be that of the future.” The present offensive he described as a preparation for “ powerful and “decisive thrusts against strategic “ strongpoints of the Japanese “ Empire.” In June, Dr. Evatt at a London press conference discounted the view, that Japan would have 'to be beaten by “ island to island reconquest.” The capture of “ half a dozen selected “ islands . . . might transform the “whole position in the South China “ Sea.” But without these reminders it should still be possible to recall General MacArthur’s statement in January. He said then that “ air “ power, linked with ground “ strategy, would eliminate any “ costly island-to-island advance in “ the Pacific. By its fullest use “ many enemy strongpoints could be “ by-passed and decisive blows “ dealt at vital centres.” He has only begun to receive the air power he needs. He has just taken one of the places he needs for it. It is a little premature to blame him for dallying among inconsequential islands. G.L.S. The completion of five years’ work is recorded in the annual report of the Country Library Service, with the modest comment that, while much remains to be done before New Zealand has an adequate library system, it is a “ hopeful “ sign ” that the service has been able to grow in usefulness during the abnormal conditions of war. Something should be added to this. It should be said that the Country Library Service, which cost little to found and costs little to maintain, which works quietly, out of the glare of publicity and controversy, but with steady, constructive social effect, is an established success. It rapidly passed the stage when it was itself an experiment; it has not ceased to be, and it is to be hoped it will never cease to be, a centre of experimental effort. Some of this effort has bean called forth by direct war-time needs. Some has been stimulated by the difficulty of developing its primary programme in war; but the development has been real and instructive. There are ways in which the service contributes directly to the efficiency of the public library system ns a whole: for example, in supplementing the resources of even the largest public libraries and in assisting them to pursue a co-ordinated library stock policy.

Chiefly, however, the service has been occupied in distributing -books to groups or individuals in areas remote from established libraries and in supplying books and periodicals to the smaller town libraries. This second task, the largest undertaken by the service, is conditional: the libraries so supplied must go “ free.” More than 40 of these county, borough, and town libraries now co-operate with the service, issuing from just under 100,000 books (Hawera: pop. 4663, borrowers 1780) to about 2400 (Cromwell: pop. 737, borrowers 111) in the year. The increase in the number of borrowers under the system is striking: Greymouth, for example, 450 before and' 274l now; Kaiapoi, 60 and 650; Mackenzie County, 70 and 682; Rotorua, 358 and 2891. “It is, of course, a commonplace that the number of borl- - will be greater under a “free system than under a sub- “ scription one,” the report observes; but the success of a system is not less valuable because it is certain, and this is a success to which a more important measure than the counting of heads applies. Not only are more borrowers using these libraries; they are using better libraries. The library stocks are larger, they are more frequently renewed or varied, and the standard of stocking is higher. Besides, the local authority which elects to go “free,” since it assumes an increased but perfectly fair financial responsibility, takes its responsibility more seriously. This development in public library work, as was said above, has been real and instructive. Its lesson is that the development should go a long way further. What works fruitfully in small towns will work fruitfully in the large ones. To maintain the Canterbury Public Library, for instance, on a subscription basis, even with an annual subsidy (in the last few years) of £2OOO from the Christchurch City Council, is to prevent it from serving the community as it should.