NO EASY TASK

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 27 September 1944, Page 5

NO EASY TASK

1 DEFEAT OF JAPAN 1 GENERAL BLAMEY’S WARNING 1 Sydney, Sept. 27> [ “Long and costly campaigns pro- , bably will be necessary before the ’ Japanese are defeated.” said General Sir Thomas Blarney, Commander-in- ' Chief of the Allied land forces in the , South-West Pacific. Progress made so • far had been merely an approach to ! the main struggle. “Some people are smugly trying to convince themselves that the Japanese will crack when the Nazis go,” commented General Blarney, “but there is no real prospect of this happening. We of the Australian Army • know how the Japanese can fight. We have seen thousands prefer death to surrender.” General Blarney referred to the difficulties faced by the Allied armies in landing in France to fight the German nation of 80,000,000 people. Yet at this time half the German forces were engaged on the Russian front. Were people so optimistic a s to believe it would be less difficult to traverse immense distances and land an effective force on the Japanese mainland to defeat her 90,000,000? General Blarney said the Australian Army was now resting for the great tasks which lay ahead. There could be no reduction in the fighting strength of that army. In the New Guinea and Solomons areas 90,000 Japanese had been by-passed and still remained to be dealt with. These Japanese were isolated and no longer a threat to Australia, •'but they were fanatics and would fight until killed. Underscoring the difficulties of the Pacific war General Blarney disclosed that Australian military hospitals had given treatment to 1.400,000 patients since the fighting began. ,