Must Net Risk Defeat in Pacific

Manawatu Times, Volume 68, Issue 25, 30 January 1943, Page 5

Must Net Risk Defeat in Pacific

LONDON TIMES SUPPORTS CURTIN Received Friday, 8.30 p.m. LONDON, Jan. 29. “Mr. Curtin did not speak as an alarmist but as a man on the spot who can estimate the dangers close at hand.” This is the comment of The Times, London, on Mr. Curtin’s Aus tralia Day broadcast giving warning of the Japanese threat in the South Pacific. The Times adds: “Australia’s Prime Minister did not mince his words, hut he is not exaggerating any more now than in the past when he foreshadowed with deadly accuracy the development of the Japanese campaign. In one respect only d,oes Japanese strength appear to have been weakened by the recent operations—in shipping. The ground recovered was held only by Japanese outposts and behind them the enemy power remains immense. “It is almost certain that among the Offensive measures which Tojo described in the Diet as being ready is a plan for the renewal of the attempt to isolate Australia from the United States. It would be the height of imprudence for the Allies to risk another cracking of the Pacific front which has been lightly sealed after terrible JpsiJes. As Mr Curtin pointed out. this is not a matter of sentiment but of vital strategy. Whether or not victorv in the Pacific is considered a first roaJ, defeat in the Pacific would he catastrophic.”