GROWING

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24850, 25 February 1942, Page 5

GROWING

THE ALLIED NATIONS AMERICA'S MAIN TASK GREATER PRODUCTION WASHINGTON, Feb. 23. President Roosevelt, in his broadcast speech, showed a spirit of confidence, but re-emphasised that the war would ! not end soon. "Difficult paths lie ahead," he declared. " The Allies are daily increasing in strength. Soon we, and not our enemies, will have the offensive, and we will win the final battles and make the final peace. The presnt great struggle has taught us increasingly that freedom, personal security, and property anywhere in the world depend upon the security of rights, obligations, liberty, and justice everywhere in the world. This is a new kind of war. It is different from all other previous wars not only in methods and weapons, but also in geography. It is warfare in terms of every continent, island, sea, and air lane in the world. " The broad oceans which have been heralded in the past as our protection from attack have become endless battlefields on which we are constantly being challenged by our enemies. We fight at these vast distances because that is where our enemies are. Until our flow of supplies gives us a clear superiority we must keep on striking our enemies wherever and whenever we can meet them. Actually, we are taking a heavy toll of the enemy every day that goes by. The Nazis and Japanese aim to separate the United States, Britain, China, and Russia, and isolate them one from another so that each will be surrounded and cut off from supplies and, reinforcements. "Thers are those who still think in terms of sailing ships. They advise us to pull our warships and planes into home waters and concentrate on the last ditch of defence. Look at the map —the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, the Indies, and India, with their resources of raw materials and peoples, determined to resist Axis domination. If these great reservoirs were cut off we could no longer s°nd aid. China's Magnificent Defence '"lt is essential that we help China in her magnificent defence and inevitable counter-offensive, for that is one important element in the ultimate defeat of Japan. If we lost communication in the South-west Pacific all that area, including Australia and New Zealand, would fall under Japanese domination. Japan could then release a great number of ships and men and launch attacks on a large scale against the coasts of the western hemisphere and at the same time extend her conquests towards India, Africa, and the Near East. If we stopped sending munitions to the British and Russians in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf areas we would help the Nazis to overrun Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Persia, Egypt, the Suez canal, and the whole coasts of North and West Africa, putting Germany within easy striking distance of South America. If by such a fatuous policy we ceased to protect the North Atlaiiic supply line of Britain and Russia we would help to cripple the splendid counter-offensive by Russia, and we would deprive Britain of essential foodstuffs and munitions. "Those Americans who believed we could live under the illusion of isolationism wanted the American eagle to imitate the ostrich. Now those same people want our national bird turned into a turtle, but we prefer to retain the eagle flying high and striking hard. I * know I speak for the American people when I saw we reject the turtle policy and will continue increas-ingly-to carry the war towards the enemy in distant lands and waters as far as possible from home grounds. The maintenance of vital lines of communications in the North and South Atlantic, the Indian Ocean, and the South Pacific is a very tough job requiring tremendous daring and resourcefulness, and above all tremendous production of planes, tanks, guns, and ships to carry them. I speak again for the American people when I say we can and will do that job. Heavy bombers can fly to the south-west Pacific, but smaller planes cannot, and must be packed in crates and shipped. In spite of the length and difficulties of transportation we have already a large number of bombers and pursuit planes manned by American pilots in daily contact with the enemy in the south-west Pacific, and thousands of American troops are engaged in that area, not only in the air, but on the ground." Ocean Patrol Work The President referred to the patrol work being carried out in the North Atlantic, South Atlantic, Indian Ocean, and the South Pacific. "These are not one-way traffic lanes," he said. "All those ships which take our troops and ammunition outward bound, bring inward essential war materials for our own use. It is a tough job maintaining those lines." Japan had an obvious initial advantage. She could fly even her shortrange planes to any point of attack, using the many islands in between as stepping stones. Japanese transports could set out from Japan and China, protected the whole way by Japanese planes. Before the war even began the Philippines were surrounded on three sides by Japanese positions. Under the Washington Treaty of 1921, the President continued, the United States Government had agreed not to fortify the Philippines. They had always realised that in the event of a Japanese attack it would be difficult to send reinforcements to the Philippines, and it had been intended if such attack came to fight a delaying action, but to hold the Batan Peninsula and Corregidor. It was realised that ultimately the American resources would overwhelm the Japanese on sea and land.

Nothing that had so far happened had tended to disturb that plan. The magnificent stand made by General MacArthur had exceeded expectations, and it should be borne in mind that every Japanese transport sunk off Java or elsewhere was one less Japanese transport to take Japanese reinforcements to the Philippines.