LONG WAR AHEAD

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 84, 6 October 1943, Page 5

LONG WAR AHEAD

AMERICAN PREDICTION

Rec. Noon. ' NEW YORK, October 5. Optimistic predictions that Germany and Japan are about to crumble are not based on solid fact, said the Undersecretary of War, Mr.. B. P. Patterson, addressing the C.1.0. United Automobile Workers' Union. He added that General Marshall and other military leaders had given as their considered opinion^ that a long, hard struggle was ahead. So far the United States casualties had been low compared with those of the Allies! The Russians had-borne the brunt of German.power for more than two years at the cost of 10,000,000 Russian soldiers killed, wounded, and captured. The time was at hand when we would be striking heavy blows and carrying an increasing part of the burden. The United States Army and Navy had done a great j6b in the South-west Pacific, but although American submarines had cut large, and important holes in the Japanese supply lines Tokio still sat at the top of a great sweep of territory undamaged, busy at war production and so far fairly safe. It looked like a long war in the Pacific. Air and sea power could' win it, but not in a hurry. Japan had 3,000,000 men under arms and could call up 20 more divisions if they were needed. The Japanese Fleet still dominated the Western Pacific from Kamchatka to the Marshall Islands and continued to be a major obstacle to our effective land and sea operations.

The Americans' main advantage in war was1 the ability to produce weapons. To accomplish Germany's and Japan's defeat would, demand the wholehearted, single-minded effort of every man and woman in the country.