THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, January 28, 1942. THE PACIFIC THEATRE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24826, 28 January 1942, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Wednesday, January 28, 1942. THE PACIFIC THEATRE

Prominence was given in the Prime Minister’s statement in the House of Commons yesterday to the gravity of the menace that is presented to British interests by the continued advance of the Japanese in the Pacific theatre of war. If this had not been so, there would have been serious disappointment in the dominions, particularly in Australia. But the reality of the anxiety that is felt in Great Britain concerning the threat to Australia and New Zealand need not be doubted. There was, no doubt, a tendency to underestimate the military might of Japan and to rate too lightly the soundness of her strategy, the skill of her officers in her various war services, and the devotion of her soldiers, sailors and airmen to their duty. The events of the past few weeks have clearly shown that she is an enemy that is not to be despised. She had made her plans with conspicuous sagacity and she has proceeded to execute them with efficiency and determination. At the present moment she is in possession of points d’appui scattered throughout the Pacific Ocean that confer on her a formidable immediate advantage. As the aggressor, of course —as a treacherous aggressor to boot—she enjoyed the benefit of the initiative, and this initiative must be wrested from her before it will be possible to check her advance. She has not been having matters all her own way, for she has suffered reverses, including a heavy one in Macassar Strait. The successes which she has achieved, however, far exceed her losses, and have placed her in a position that directly threatens the security of Malaya and constitutes a somewhat more remote but still distinct danger to Australia. Nothing would be gained by blinking the facts and, while we hear little from Malaya other than is furnished in the far from reassuring reports of the fighting that is in progress, we know that a state of grave concern, not far short of alarm, exists in Australia, and that her Ministers have' appealed to Great Britain and the United States in almost frenzied terms for help. It was only a few weeks ago that the Commander-in-Chief of the Australian forces in the Middle East, returning to the Commonwealth in order to assist : rx .—ss., «a«rijjfing, campaign. jjfflg astounded to discover the carnival spirit that prevailed. The people of Australia, as a whole, betrayed a wholly inadequate conception of the momentousness of the issues involved in the war and of the stupendousness of the effort that had to be made in order that the triumph of the Empire and of the countries associated with her might be assured. They had not done, and have not yet done, all that it was necessary for them to do for the protection of their shores. It is probable that they are now alive to a sense of their insecurity and that the cry which their politicians ; have emitted for reinforcements is one that reflects an acknowledgment by them of their short-sightedness in the past. But any reinforcements that come from Great Britain are secured at the cost of a diminution of the powers of resistance that can be offered to the Axis Powers on the stage on which the result of the war must be finally determined. And, however promptly reinforcements may be despatched, they are, not likely to reach Australia within! a few weeks. Until they arrive Australia must rely on her own, efforts, and on such help as New fee able, to her, to withstand the invaders. She may not come scathless through the ordeal with which she is threatened, but it would be unjust to the Australian people to suppose that, if they are put to the test, they are less lacking than their brothers and sisters in Great Britain in the qualities of courage, grit, and endurance.