ALEUTIAN ISLANDS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 137, 12 June 1942, Page 3

ALEUTIAN ISLANDS

HAVE JAPS LANDED?

OBSCURE POSITION

(By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright.) (Rec. 1.30 p.m.)' - • WASHINGTON, June 11. The United States naval and military authorities maintain their silence over the operations in the region of Midway Island, while the situation in the Aleutians is still obscure. According to reliable estimates received from Honolulu, the Japanese lost 90 per cent, of their aircraft in the Midway Island battle, and their loss of life-is believed to have been at least 10,000. J The first admission that Japan has lost two aircraft-carriers was contained in a statement by the Japanese naval expert Masanori Ito. Claiming the sinking of two United States carriers, he said the Japanese should hot be disappointed at the loss of two of their own carriers because the gain was greater than the loss. Unofficial circles in Washington insist that Tokio's claims of landings in the Aleutians are designed purely to cushion the shock of their own admission of naval losses off Midway. ON UNINHABITED ISLE? Although the Navy Department denies the Japanese claim to have made a landing in the Aleutians, the "New York TimesV Washington correspondent says the navy spokesman's statement does not necessarily totally deny the Japanese claim of landings, since few of the Aleutian Islands west of Unalaska are inhabited by permanent residents. Competent authorities, adds the correspondent, hold that landings by the Japanese on a few islands of the Aleutians would not constitute a serious threat either to Alaska or to the west coast of Canada. ' United States commentators emphasise the tremendous importance of the Aleutians, especially if Russia and Japan'should go to war. This area, with Alaska, has long been the strategic roof of the world. WARNING IN LONDON. "If the Japanese claim of landings is true it is the most sensational Japanese move since the conquest of •Malaya, the Netherlands East Indies, and Burma," says, the London "Daily Mail." "Having obtained command of the south-west Pacific, Japan is now striking at the north-west. The object of this strategy would be to hold America within a vast semi-circle as Britain is held in the hostile arc of occupied Europe. *, "The Aleutians have been called a dagger pointing at Japan, but they are j also stepping-stones from Japan to the American continent. There is no foundation for the current wave of optimism in Britain and the United States about th^ progress of the Pacific war.' at is still certainly unjustified by any recent operations. The public must realise the Pacific situation is still extremely grim."