NEW CALEDONIA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24915, 14 May 1942, Page 6

NEW CALEDONIA

STRATEGICAL VALUE The occupation of New Caledonia is to be welcomed because of the island’s great strategical importance, says the military correspondent of the Sydney Morning Herald. Far from being “merely another Pacific island,” New Caledonia is one of the keys to the strategy of the south-western Pacific, for it looks both west to the Australian mainland and east to the steppingstone on the main trade routes between Australia, New Zealand, and North America. Strategists have always realised that enemy forces in New Caledonia could directly menace the eastern seaboard of Australia. Bombers from the island airports could easily attack the cities and other productive centres along the coasts of Queensland and New South Wales, and could prey against shipping making for the east coast. From the lonely ports along the 220 miles of coast, especially on the eastern side, raiders by sea and air could attack shipping from Australia, apd could conceivably blockade the continent on the east. One school of thought has always maintained that the Japanese could gain more by trying to cut Australia’s line# of communication with the outside world than by a direct invasion; and the likelihood of this blockading policy becomes the greater as Australia’s growing defences are revealed to the enemy. If the Japanese wanted to cut. down along the outer circle. New Caledonia would be the pivot of their entire movement. The American occupation, which must be on a considerable scale for effective protection, has forestalled all of these potential Japanese threats, and, in addition, has kept the Japanese away from those deposits _of chrome, nickel and cobalt which Japan’s industries badly need. The mountainous nature of the whole island and the paucity of inland communications give a great advantage to the Power already in possession. The French themselves were not numerically strong enough to defend it, and the entire white population in peacetime was only about 17,000; but, reinforced by American troops with modern equipment, they should be able to hold the island, particularly now that aerial patrol enables the long and lonely coastline to be watched, more continuously.