STRATEGIC TALKS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 250, 20 July 1942, Page 6

STRATEGIC TALKS

Curtin And MacArthur Confer SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC PLANS

(By Telegraph.—Press Assn.—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 18. Important discussions affecting future plans in the south-west Pacific have , taken place between the Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, and General MacArthur. No official statement was made, but it is understood that one matter discussed was the likelihood of Japan’s southern bases being attacked from Australia.

Official quarters have shown an increasing tendency to anticipate Japanese moves by an early offensive on enemy-occupied territory close to Australia. Apart from giving Allied forces here better jumping-off plaegs for the greater offensive which must eventually come, it is believed that a determined show of force by direct attack against a limited objective in the Pacific theatre might help to discourage Japan from attacking Russia's eastern frontiers. Australia has to be prepared for several years of war and for great struggles which lie ahead in the southwest Pacific as well as in other .parts of the world. This statement has been made by the Minister of the Army, Mr. Forde, who said that the army in Australia might have to fight off an attempted invasion. It should not be imagined that the Japanese would be content merely to hold the territories they had already conquered. Drives further south were likely. The army in Australia was now'the strongest ever assembled in the Southern Hemisphere, bub more fighters, bombers, tanks, guns, and ships were needed. Mr. Forde said that the position in Egypt was causing great concern and that the war was going against Russia.