NO EASY TASK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 12 August 1942, Page 5

NO EASY TASK

EXPULSION OF JAPANESE COMMENT BY NEWSPAPER (Rec. 10.30 a.m.) Rugby, Aug. 11. “Japan’s soldiers have shown themselves masters of fighting in the Tropics. No one can imagine that the expulsion of these stolid fighters from the very many positions they have seized will be either quick or easy.” the Manchester “Guardian” states in discussing the battle in the Solomons. The battle is to the enemy's advantage, the newspaper states, because he is fighting from the land while the Allies had to begin from transports. The Japanese are reported to nave built air bases on Guadalcanal and these will be stocked with defensive bombers. Japan's aim would be to send reinforcements to these bases, and the Allies were attempting to destroy them before they could take off from New Guinea and New Britain. “How successful we have been with our carrier-based planes against the land-based Japanese i do not yet know,” the newspaper continues, “but it is remarkable that in the long list of successes claimed by Japan no mention is made of any Allied aircraftcarrier being hit although these ships in the background would have been the first targets.”—B.O.W.