ENEMY MOVES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25176, 17 March 1943, Page 3

ENEMY MOVES

TROOP CONCENTRATIONS f ' ; DEVELOPMENTS IN PACIFIC (N.Z.P.A. Special Aust. Correspondent) (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Mar. 16. The weight of the latest Japanes'e air assault on Darwin and the movement of heavy troop concentrations along the enemy-held arc of islands north of Australia give point to General MacArthur’s warning on Monday that the Japanese are gathering strength possibly for some new excursion. The latest communique report*, more widespread enemy air and ship- : ping activity than has been evident for many months past.' “These latest developments in the Pacific war call for the careful attention of the Allied High Command and a fresh consideration of what the holding war in our northern waters may entail,” declares an Australian warcorrespondent, while the representa-' tive of the New York Times here, Mr Tillman Durdin, comments: “The new activity means that the Japanese are growing stronger on both sides of New" Guinea. It also means more targets, for Allied bombers—-and more bomb-' ers could be used here if Lieutenantgeneral G. C. Kenny’s air force had them.” Australian observers point out that only in the southern Pacific sector of the long enemy maritime perimeter stretching from the Burma coast to the,, outer Solomons are the Japanese being,! made to fight hard and incessantly for' what they now hold. The Sydney Morning Herald makes, it clear that the case for greater air striking power extends to Admiral Halsey’s as well as to General MacArthur’scommand area. The paper adds that, “in the area of,the Aru Islands and on the south-west New Guinea coast the Japanese appear to be building up a nest of bases not dissimilar to that in the Rabaul-Buin-Faisi region on the . other side of New Guinea'. Our air attacks have done no more than interrupt temporarily the enemy’s ant-like - industry.” A statement from General Mac- - Arthur’s headquarters published to-day ■ said that these Japanese concentra- ■ tions “had not yet. reached alarming . proportions.” No indication is given ;• whether they are offensively or de-.' fensively designed. Some United j States commentators take the former • view. The American Associated Press! military analyst, Mr Glen Babb, says that the concentrations in the Am-. boina and Dobo areas suggest strongly > that the Japanese are preparing to' descend on the Australian north-west' coast. Such an invasion, he says, * would not necessarily imply an at-r < tempt at permanent occupation. The, Japanese might hope to create a diver- • sion, thus enabling an improvement in their situation in other areas, where the current outlook is not bright, at the same time compelling General MacArthur to divert major forces from other theatres —for example, northeastern New Guinea, where the Japanese garrisons at Lae. Salamaua, Ma-? dang, and Wewak are under mounting Allied pressure. : “ Their plight resembles that of their > comrades in Papua shortly before the. Australians and Americans destroyed - General Horii’s army,” declared Mr Babb. “Meanwljile the outcome of the Bismarck sea battle justifies Allied • confidence while awaiting the next, Japanese blow. It demonstrated such Allied man-for-man and plane-for- J plane superiority that any Japanese c adventure, is surely marked for terrible punishment or destruction.”