JAPANESE MYSTERY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 265, 8 October 1942, Page 5

JAPANESE MYSTERY

NO SIGN OF STAND MAY LEAVE NEW GUINEA (N.Z. Press Association.—Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, Oct. 7. The Japanese are believed to have evacuated the Owen Stanley Ranges. The Australian forces moving forward from Kagi toward the highest point of the Hell's Gap pass have not encountered any of the enemy. The original cautious theory that the Japanese would make a stand on the highest ground of the ranges is being replaced by the view that the enemy, having proved the impracticability of a back-door land offensive against Port Moresby, is now following hii Milne Bay precedent and withdrawing forces which have proved unequal to their task. The Australian Broadcasting Commission's war correspondent, Mr Hayden Leonard, to-day goes so far as to suggest that "the Japanese, having bitten off more than they can chew in the Owen Stanley area may now be preparing to abandon New Guinea."

Several factors support the impression that a singlo Japanese transport which left Buna early on Monday may have evacuated the enemy troops who have survived the Owen Stanley jungle campaign: (1) For eight days since the capture of the loribaiwa ridge, the advancing Australians have encountered no organised resistance.

(2) In the 35 miles from the loribaiwa ridge to Hell's Gap, no enemy prepared positions have been found. (3) Our fighter planes strafing the trail from Kokoda to Buna have detected no heavy movement of enemy troops and supplies. (4) For some weeks the Japanese have made no attempt to fill in the bomb craters on the now useless Buna airfield.

(5) The Wairopi bridge has not been attacked by our aircraft during the past two days, leading to the conclusion that the Japanese have made no. attempt to repair the damage done in earlier attacks. (6) The small convoy leaving Buna, apparently for Rabaul, was strongly protected by Zero fighters, suggesting that troops may have been carried. "Buna by Christmas," which at first was a wishful catch-cry among the Australian troops, has become invested with the possibility i of an earlier fulfilment as Australian advanced patrols move on through deserted villages.FEEDING THE TROOPS.

Scores of women have responded to the urgent call by the Commonwealth Government for factory workers needed to prepare special concentrated food for Australian front-line troops in New Guinea. The concentrated food is packed in parcels about Bin square. These parcels are dropped from planes to troops advancing over the Owen Stanley Ranges. Tea, tablets of soup, tablets of meat and vegetable extracts and dried fruit are included in each package, and the contents may be eaten in their concentrated form or converted into soups and stews by being heated with \vater. Delivery, of rations in this form is reducing supply difficulties in the mountains, and has enabled much faster progress by the Australian forces than would have been possible had the normal iron rations (bully-beef and biscuits) had to bo brought forward by native carriers.

CORRESPONDENT'S COURAGE. Mr V. Haugland, the Associated Press war correspondent, lias been awarded the United States Silver Star. General MacArthur, Supreme Commander of the South-West Pacific, made the presentation. Haugland is in hospital somewhere in New Guinea. Ho is the first war correspondent to bo decorated in the Prtcific war, and was lost for six weeks in the New Guinea jungle after baling out of a bomber early "in August.