PACIFIC STRATEGY

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIII, Issue 23, 26 December 1942, Page 5

PACIFIC STRATEGY

U.S. NAVY LOOKS TO TRUK. NEW YORK, Dec. 24. The New York Times correspondent, Mr Hanson Baldwin, says that some observers who dislike our approach toward Japan from the southern Pacific says, “Suppose Rabaul is taken. So what?” Some believe that wo should push westward. General MacArthur has his heart set on the reconquest of the Philippines. It is certain that they play an important part in his picture ol Pacific strategy, and rightly, for our prestige and honour are bound up in General MacArthur’s promise to the Filipinos to return some day at the van of a conquering American army. The navy looks . beyond Rabaul toward Truk, the heart of the Japanese mandates, and thoir principal base on which their operations in the South Pacific depend. Truk ,is apparently thoroughly equipped with very strong fortifications. It would he many, many times more difficult than Rabaul to take. The distanco from Rabaul to Truk is overgreat to permit the effective neutralisation of Truk by air bombardment, yet American planes and submarines operating from Rabaul could, conduct a campaign of attrition against Truk and undoubtedly harass the Japanese) positions and weaken them seriously. Truk will I»obahl.v fall only to a direct assault, and the ensuing battlo will probably dwarf in bitterness, size, bloodshed, and costs everything than has gone before.