JAPANESE NAVY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 June 1942, Page 4

JAPANESE NAVY

CERTAINLY WEAKENED BY LOSSES BUT ORIGINAL STRENGTH UNKNOWN. STRONG AMERICAN DRIVE ADVOCATED. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day, 12.55 p.m.) NEW YORK, June 16. No Navy could withstand Japan’s Pacific losses without being forced to curtail operations, says the “Christian Science Monitor's” naval correspondent. He adds the warning that Japan’s present strength cannot be estimated, since no exact information is available about her initial strength on December 7. Speculating on the cause of Japan’s infrequent exposure of her battleships, the correspondent says this could be due either to her lack of faith in their usefulness or to a desire to husband her meagre store for an ultimate all-out attempt for the mastery of the Pacific. Now is the propitious moment for the United States Navy to start a drive that will push back the Japanese to their islands. WAY CLEARED FOR OFFENSIVE ACTION. VIEW OF NEW YORK WRITER. (Received This Day, 12.55 p.m.) NEW YORK, June 16. The “New York Times” Washington correspondent believes that the Aleutian Islands victory, though smaller, may be fully comparable with the Midway success and that the Japanese have now been driven beyond the Aleutians-Wake Island-Hawaii-Panama line, which marks the American sphere. Tte correspondent adds that, with this line secure, air and naval forces would be free to organise the offensive type of operations necessary to carry the war to Japan, either from Australia or west from Hawaii, by attempts to roll up the scattered Japanese bases and forces planted in the mandated territories.