MOVE TO WAR BASIS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 49, 27 February 1942, Page 5

MOVE TO WAR BASIS

AMERICA NEEDS TIME

BANDOENG, February 26,

Answering the question, "Why has the United States not been more active?" the Lieutenant-Governor-General of the East Indies, Dr. Van Mook, broadcasting on the results of his visit to the United States, said: "We must remember the dif-, ficulties that must be surmounted by a people who hitherto have been inspired only by a desire for peace and who, after December 7, still had to commence building up their war machine. Much had been done to increase production for the assistance of Britain, but when a country like the United States concentrates on waging its own war it is very different from increasing production to assist others."

Dr. Van Mook assured the Dutch that the Americans were not under the illusion that this part of the world was the least important theatre of war. Reinforcements were en route to the Indies, and some had arrived.

When he left the United States, he said, he had pointed out that the Dutch main force was stationed in Java, and that the defence plans never envisaged that the outer islands would be defended as Java would be defended.

"We are not alone in this, though at the moment we must mainly depend on our own strength," he said. "The United States forces here will stay here\ and the supplies will continue."