REACTION IN U.S.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 10 August 1942, Page 2

REACTION IN U.S.

NEWS FEATURED IN PRESS (Rec. 2.30 p.m.) New York, Aug. 9 The entire American Press features the Solomons move giving it precedence even over the Nazi advance on Maikop and the Indian situation. The Pearl Harbour correspondent of the Associated Press of America calls the action “The turning point from a war of attrition to one of offensive blows,”

Observers point out that the Midway and Coral Sea battles, however farreaching in their results, were defensive actions, while the Solomon Islands battle, at least technically, is purely offensive in its nature. The Washington correspondent of the New York “Daily Mirror’’ quotes a Navy spokesman as saying: “It seems that the battle is the first real attempt to retake Japanese occupied territory.” The Washington correspondent of the “New York Times” reports speculation in military circles that the Japanese had assembled considerable invasion forces in the Solomons preparatary to an assault on Australia. Referring to the Kiska (in the Aleutians) operation, Major Fielding Eliot in the New York “Herald-Tribune” says: “It was certainly a diversion for the South-West Pacific and at the same time a move to eliminate Japanese interference with possible direct American aid to Russia.” Major Eliot warns against expecting miraculous or swift results Time must elapse between successive steps of an operation of this magnitude carried out by our limited forces. He sums up the general reaction to the news, »as “that we are on an offensive in the Pacific is sufficiently cheering* news in itself.” P.A.