SOLOMONS STRUGGLE

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 107, 2 November 1942, Page 5

SOLOMONS STRUGGLE

WIDER ISSUES NOW AT STAKE

NEW YORK, October 31. "Military developments between Japan and America have ceased to be a battle for the Solomons and become a battle for the Southwest Pacific,'* writes Joseph C. Harsch, who till recently was the "Christian Science Monitor's" war correspondent in Australia. i He adds: "The initiative lies in Japanese hands, as our forces Vcannot break off the action without exposing the America-Australia supply line. , "The occupation of Guadalcanal by the Americans was the first challenge to the southward infiltration of the Japanese, but not "a vital challenge. Why did the Japanese decide to* make a serious issue "in the Solomons, t&ough: India seems a more desirable prize than Australia and New Zealand? "The answer is that Japan wiul not be distracted by morsels of loot from the major business of securing .• and defending her newly-won empire. Events have proved that the "uJnited States is the only enemy able to> challenge Japan. CONTINUATION OF WAB. "The objective of the Japanese? in the Guadalcabtoal campaign, therefbrei, is more than to wipe out a loss <bt face. It is a continuation of Japan's? creeping campaign further south an,d westward, by which the Japanese hope to choke off the greatest single dianger to their conquests—the United States. "Our only consolation is that it is unlikely that Japan will attasck on any other front while the present campaign continues in the Solomons. But our forces are being pounded so> heavily that a fulfilment of the suggestions which have been heard of a second front to be opened by the British in Burma might be helpful." The former Tokio correspondent of the "New York Times," Mr. Otto Tolischus, addressing the China Society in New York, emphasised the importance of holding the Solomon Islands "in order to prevent the invasion of Australia." Mr. Tolischus said that this, together with an invasion of Siberia, was Japan's principal objective.