Greater Air And Sea Strength In Pacific Necessary

Taranaki Daily News, 22 March 1943, Page 3

Greater Air And Sea Strength In Pacific Necessary

Special Australian Correspondent.

European theatre still must be given first priority.

Rec. 9.35 p.m. ' Sydney, March 21. "'J'HE Allied forces in the Pacific are not strong enough to beat back any major Japanese attempts to make further advances." This statement was made by Admiral L. E. Helfrich, commander-in-chief of the Netherlands forces, in a interview with war correspondents. He added that, unless sufficient Allied strength was arrayed against the Japanese to close the gaps in the defensive arc, the Japanese island chain might become so strong as to make an eventual successful Allied offensive impossible.

"We must continue to attack the Japanese and we must make certain they do not move south again," said Admiral Helfrich. Both Allied air power and sea power were lacking in the Pacific. It was vital to secure control of the sea. That could only be done by the triumph of air power. "There is too much wishful thinking about the Japanese forces," he declared. "They are very aggressive. Our victories —even smashing victories like the. Bismarck Sea battle— are only small phases in a big war. Perhaps we shall need hundreds of victories like that before we can win. I am not pessimistic but it is highly dangerous to be overoptimistic. This war will take a long time to win." Underscoring the comments of Admiral Helfrich on air power in relation to Pacific victory are statemer.ts by General MacArthur and the New York Joumal American. In his message to the British air chief, Sir Charles Portal, General MacArthur said: "In air power — in proper co-ordination — lies the way to victory, if we have the' constructive imagination to seize the opportunity." The New York Journal-American, said editorially, "General MacArthur should have vastly more air power. There is no assurance that we can beat the Japanese if we wait too long." Representative Melvin Maas says one plane in the Southern Pacific now may be worth 100 later. He was urging mass meetings and petitions in support of the plea for more planes for the Pacific, "Not to send planes to General MacArthur may prove more disastrous than

Pearl Harbour." he declared. "The American people must realise that Japan is the toughest and most immediately threatening enemy of the United States." Censorship necessarily prevents a frank report on the deep dissatisfaction of responsible American army and navy officers in the Pacific over the allotment of planes and ships to them by the joint chiefs of staff, according to the New York world telegram's Washington correspondent, Raymond Clapper. "The issue at Washington shows no change in the fundamental plan of knocking out Hitler first," says Mr. Clapper. "It all depends on whether out of the American combat plane production of 3500 a month a percentae can be allotted to the South and South-west Pacific so' that the striking force there may be gradually built up. The argument is that if the Allies can hold the striking initiative in the Pacific, American planes c~.n earn very high dividends in enemy losses. Army and navy officers in both Pacific areas accept priority second to the Atlantic," Mr. Clapper adds. "They have for the present only limited objectives, but they feel deeply that even these have been neglected. "No official answer to all these persuasions has yet been made. However, the chief of the United States Army Air Corps, Lieutenant-General H. H. Arnold, stated recently: "All planes are marked for a definite theatre and a definite task." Lieutenant-General Arnold has close personal knowledge of the problems of the Pacific war and it is believed that he is sympathetic to the needs of . this theatre.