CAN JAPAN LAST?

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 13, 15 July 1943, Page 4

CAN JAPAN LAST?

Coming from Dr. Evatt, so long a j champion of the claims of Australia and the Pacific theatre of war for more ihelp and attention, the statement, reported in the news today, that "if the war strategy works out as is hoped, Japan may outlast Hitler only by a very short space of time" is not without significance. It shows, in the first place—and Dr. Evatt gratefully acknowledged it—that, in his words, "additional air strength is being provided for Australia" and that "un-i remitting pressure would be exerted against Japan in the Pacific." At the same time he declared "that "undoubtedly the Allied time-table contemplates Hitler's defeat before that of Japan." The fear expressed by Dr. Evatt and other leading ■ Australians, including his chief, the Commonwealth Prime Minister, Mr. Curtin, all through j the criticaldays of last year and the early part of this, was that Japan, given a period of undisturbed security, would be able to "develop the vast resources of her new-won empire, make herself thereby impregnable to attack, and place herself in an excellent position to resume the offensive towards Australia and New Zealand at the first, convenient moment, There was no doubt a good deal in this argument provided the immunity ; of Japan from attack could be ex- j tended for a term of years. The resources of the territories occupied by Japan are very great, but the capacity of Japan to exploit them quickly was i exaggerated. It has taken the United States, with the greatest industrial equipment in the" world and vast resources within or close to her frontiers, j at least two years to work up her war potential to a point adequate for the task in hand. Japan's own industrial equipment is far inferior, and in addition there are problems of transport over thousands of miles of ocean. Left alone Japan could hardly have managed the job. But she was never left alone; instead, she has been compelled to face at many points a war of attrition, in the air, at sea, and on land, which has not only hindered her use of the raw material in conquered countries, but has worn down her own accumulated resources in ships, aeroplanes, oil, and metals, as well as reserves of. Man-power, until she is actually weaker in almost all respects and far more vulnerable than she was before Pearl Harbour. That is really the. foundation .of Dr. Evatt's conclusions.