Must Not Regard Japan As Sideshow

Northern Advocate, 7 December 1943, Page 3

Must Not Regard Japan As Sideshow

CANBERRA, This. Day. The urgency of increasing the tempo of the war against. Japan was stressed by the Prime Minister (Mr. Curtin) in a statement on the second anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbour. Merely to hold Japan from further conquests during an unfixed period sufficient to end the European war would suit her strategy admirably. Authoritative conclusions, he declared, demonstrated to regard .Japan as a sideshow to be disposed of easily after the war has been won over Hitler, were not only idle talk, but dangerous talk.. Political circles in Canberra attach significance to Mr. Curtin’s statement in view of the conferences of Allied leaders at Cairo and Teheran and the Prime Minister's own conference with General MacArthur last week.

Folly of Wishful Thinking The folly of supposing that Japan will be readily crushed after the defeat of Nazi Germany has been again stressed by Mr. Curtin. His statement, made on the opening of the third year of the war in the Pacific, also supported recent hints from official quarters that more men and equipment could be well employed in the .South-west Pacific area. “As the third year of battle unfolds, there need be no misgivings, but thexe should be no shortcomings," Mr. Curtin said. Allied forces in the South-west Pacific had, with limited resources, taken every Japanese military position they had attacked. Given a heightened scale of striking power, the 'same forces - could }:i break into Japan's conquered empire before it could be fully exploited. They • could then strike at Japan's Inner empire and at Japan itself. Japan had rich resources and a vast pool of slave labour in the 400,000,000 people in her conquered' empire. Retreat Not Known One estimate had placed five years as the time which, if permitted to Japan to harness her slave labour and rich resources to war purposes, would make Japan the world's most powerful military nation. The Japanese fighting man was discip* lined beyond anything known in the western armies, and the Japanese Army had no equivalent of the order to "Retreat” in English. ’ 1 It was in these two great factors that the Democracies faced failure to over- ’ come Japan—if the Japanese were allowed time to employ them. Australia’s War Effort Mr. Curtin gave some details of Australia’s war effort which, he said, compared with that of any of the United ; 'C Nations. Australia had 1.181.000 inen practically half the working male population, in direct war work. Enlistments in the fighting forces were 858,600, almost two in every three men between the ages of 18 and 40. Volunteers to fight any- ; where numbered 607.0C0. Australia was spending practically half - her national income on the war. Direct' taxation was virtually at its limit. The loan programme had raised £425,000.000 since Japan struck at Pearl Harbour. Commenting on Mr. Curtin’s statement, the Sydney "Morning Herald” editorially points out that the Japanese never banked • on a short war. Rather, they reckoned that, having acquired rich resources and '-'f* consolidated their outer defences, they , c could fight on until their adversaries be- 1 ; came weary of the struggle. “C “In this they are mistaken,” says the Sal paper, which commends Mr. Curtin’s em-!sg phasis on the formidable nature of the -$] struggle ahead, and on the necessity for -Sy denying the Japanese time in which exploit their early conquests. .