JAPAN ON THE DEFENSIVE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25300, 10 August 1943, Page 3

JAPAN ON THE DEFENSIVE

ALLIES’ VITAL VICTORIES (Rec. 10.45 p.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. 9. “Japan on the Pacific fronts,” said General MacArthur to-day, “has exhausted the fullest resources of concentrated attack of which she was capable. She has failed and is now on the defensive. This defensive will yield in proportion as we gather force. When that will be I do not know, but it is certain. I make no prediction as to time or detail. We are doing what we can with what we have. Our resources are still very limited, but the results of our modest but continuous success in the campaign have been cumulative to the point of being vital. “The measure of their potentiality can be obtained,” General MacArthur continued, “by imagining the picture to have been reversed, with the enemy capturing Guadalcanar and besieging Port Moresby, rather than that we are in possesion of Munda and at the gates of Salamaua. Such a contrast would have meant defeat for us in the war for the Pacific. The margin was close, but it was conclusive. Although for many reasons our victories may have lacked glamour, they have been decisive and are indicative of the final result in the Pacific.”