OBSERVERS CONFIDENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25276, 13 July 1943, Page 5

OBSERVERS CONFIDENT

QUESTIONS OF STRATEGY NEW YORK, July 11.

Qualified observers in Washington are supremely confident that the Allies will attain their immediate objectives in the Pacific offensive, says the Washington correspondent of the New York Times—but a bigger question remains unanswered. The question is: Are General MacArthur’s forces sufficiently powerful to continue fighting after the fall of the present objectives until the more important bases to,the north and north-west are taken? If General MacArthur’s forces are not strong enough to continue their victorious push without pausing for recovery, and the reinforcement and consolidation of the newly-won positions, a delay similar to. that following the fall of Guadalcanar may follow. American strategists envisage the following schedule for the Allied advance:—Munda, Bougainville, Buka, Rabaul, with the clean-up of New Guinea possibly accompanying the latter phase. Then will come the big strategic problem—whether we are to strike boldly northwards towards the main Japanese naval base at Truk, courting a naval engagement with the Japanese Fleet, and then to Tokio, or whether we are to reclaim the Philippines and East Indies. The Washington correspondent of the Wall Street Journal states that General MacArthur commands the respect of White House as a strategist. The new Pacific drive is a test of the “island by island” campaign. If New Guinea and Rabaul topple within four to six months, the theory will have been proved. Otherwise Allied strategy will be limited to direct punches against Japan from China. This means retaking Burma first.