MAGNITUDE OF FIGHT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 106, 31 October 1942, Page 7

MAGNITUDE OF FIGHT

(By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, October 30. The costly battle for the Solomon Islands seems now to have fully awakened the United States to the magnitude of the war in the Pacific. Indicative of America's heightj ened conception of the Japanese I threat' is a banner headline in the I latest issue of the New York journal "American": "This war will be won or lost in the Pacific." In America the loss of the initiative in the Solomons has stirred sections of Congress to demand a thorough' investigation into the conduct of the 'war in the Pacific. Several Congressmen who have served with the armed forces in this theatre are stated to have brought back "disquieting news." Leading commentators express the I view that, now that General' MacMac Arthur has made it plain that he has no political ambitions, his admirers in Congress will take an early opportunity to press for a united command in the South Pacific under his control. A denial that the United States island-hopping offensive in the Pacific was a "navy plan," has been made by the United States Secretary for War, Mr. Stimson.'who says that the move was decided on by the service chiefs after close consultation and was upon an agreed strategy. AUSTRALIA'S EFFORT. The "forthright and manly statement of General Mac Arthur, magnificently vindicating Australia's war effort," has been generally applauded throughout the United States, says the "New York Sun." American war news analysts say that it completely offsets the recent criticism of Australia's war effort. In Australia observers have become gravely concerned that, in the words of the "Sydney Morning Herald," "the nations' partnership-in-arms shall not be weakened by political or other differences which, mirrored or distorted, may misrepresent to either country what the other is doing in the war."