DANGER OF DEUY

Grey River Argus, 10 April 1943, Page 2

DANGER OF DEUY

IN TACKLING JAPAN MacArthur and Curtin s Warning [Aust. & bI.Z. Cable Assn.l SYDNEY, April 8. On the first anniversary of the fall of Bataan, General MacArthur issued the following statement: “A year ago to-day the dimming light of Bataan’s forlorn hope fluttered and died. Its prayers by that time —and it prayed as well as fought—were reduced to a simple formula rendered by hungry men through parched lips, ‘give us this day our daily bread.’ The light failed and Bataan was starved into collapse. The wrecks of what were once our men and women groan and sweat in prison toil. Our faithful Filipino wards —sixteen million souls—gasp in slavery to. the conquering soldiery. I was the leader of the lost cause, and from the bottom of a seared and stricken heart I pray that the merciful God may not delay too long their redemption and that the day of salvation be not so far removed that they perish, and that it be not again too late.’ ?

CANBERRA, April 9

On the occasion of the first anniversary of the. fall of Bataan, in the Philippines, placing a population of sixteen million Filipinos under Japanese domination, General MacArthur and Mr. Curtin made statements expressing the hope that the Allies would not too long delay in facing up to the Jap'anese. The Prime Minister (Mr. Curtin) in. a special statement supplementing that of General MacArthur on the anniversary, said: “Let us hope the Pacific will not become the front where the United Nations lost the war. The anniversary of tfie fall of Bataan is a sad reminder that the Pacific has become a front of lost opportunities. The United Nations successively have failed to establish a rallying point in the Philippines, at Singapore, in the Netherlands East Indies and at Ra-. baul The flood of aggression has flowed to the verges of the last main base in the South-west Pacific. In their advance, the Japanese have been highly vulnerable to counter-at-tacks, and' golden opportunities have been missed to deal them some heavy blows. “As a result, the Japanese have been allowed to consolidate, and their defeat will now be a longer and harder task. Australia has shown a ready willingness to co-operate m other war theatres, at considerable risk to her own security. Others have decreed that Germany must be beaten first. We must, therefore, exert every endeavour to ensure that the Pacific does not become the lost front. Bataan and Singapore stand as warnings to the United Nations. They •have a symbolism for the future, too significant to be forgotten.” Jvlr. Curtin’s statement virtually was a strong denunciation of the United Nations’ plan of a holding war in the Pacific, and was the Prime Minister’s first criticism of Allied grand strategy since the Casablanca conference in January decided on the “Beat Hitler First” policy.