AN ALLY’S WORTH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24910, 8 May 1942, Page 4

AN ALLY’S WORTH

Without reinforcements the American and Filipino forces, which for five months resisted the Japanese invaders in Southern Luzon, could not hope to hold out indefinitely. While General MacArthur maintained that the Philippines could be defended, he always insisted that a continuous and decisive supply was necessary to this end. He is reported to have frequently instructed his officers that, as any machine gun can be captured if the attacker is willing to pay the price, so could the Philippines be taken if the enemy was willing to write off his losses. From the moment of their many-pronged invasion of the group, the Japanese showed a reckless willingness to purchase a dear success. The United* States Government, especially after heavy initial naval losses at Pearl Harbour, and in view of the necessity to co-operate with the United Nations in other theatres of war, could not risk a desperate attempt to bring relief in force to the Philippines. The main AmericanfFilipino forces, which retired first to .the Batan Peninsula, to the west of Manila Bay, and within the past month narrowed their point of resistance to Corregidor and the other island fortresses in the mouth of the harbour, had eventually, therefore, to capitulate or to accept annihilation. They elected to hold out as long as possible. It is probable that the supplies on Corregidor were all but exhausted when the garrison, augmented beyond its capacity from Batan, asked for terms. Its stubborn, heroic fight is the stuff of which legends are made. It adds a new chapter to the story of American heroism, and it is with the deepest sincerity and admiration that the democratic world pays tribute to these men and their commanders. North and south in the rugged islands of the, Philippine group fighting is reported to be continuing still. Up in the North-east-ern Pacific Midway Island remains in the hands of United States marines. Though the war with Japan has gone badly for the United States in its initial stage, as it has also for the other Pacific Allies, the American people must find cause for pride in the staunch new generation of fighters it has put into the front line. Their example will inspire the millions of their countrymen who have yet to receive the baptism of fire. It must cheer all the democracies to have demonstrated so conclusively as at Corregidor that the American ally is as strong and rugged as his word.