ONLY FIRST STEP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 August 1942, Page 3

ONLY FIRST STEP

NO QUICK VICTORY EXPECTED OR OFFENSIVE ON GRAND SCALE. POWERFUL FORCES NEEDED. (By Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) MELBOURNE, August 11. , Observers at General MacArthur's headquarters say that it is becoming increasingly evident that the Allies are not to snatch a quick victory from the enemy, who has had months to establish himself in the bases now under attack. “To lose this battle of our own seeking would be to invite further attack from the arrogant Nipponese,” writes the “Sydney Morning Herald” correspondent. “To win it would only be the first of many agonising steps before we could hope to place the enemy back where lie belongs.” American suggestions that a second front has been opened in the Pacific are regarded as “altogether too sweeping.” , , . “If every Japanese was turned out of the Solomons from Guadalcanar, in the south, to Buka in the north, it does not follow that Rabaul would be in danger of falling,” says the “Herald” commentator, “and their considerable base at Rabaul would need to be captured before the Japanese could be said to be checkmated on this war front.” General MacArthur’s communiques do not mention the Solomon Islands battle for the reason that it is being directed from a centre not within his area, but Australian and American air and naval forces under his command are giving valuable assistance in the action.

The second front suggestions are further discounted by the “Daily Telegraph” correspondent at General MacArthur’s headquarters, who writes: “Forget these pipe-dreams of any grand-scale south-west Pacific offensive against the Japanese. Those ‘Back Home via Tokio’ signs, which pilots paint on their planes in the far north, are valuable only as camouflage colourings. , . , “An offensive needs a fleet of modern aircraft, not only in the war theatre, but rolling off the assembly line. It needs an armada of vessels and a high-powered naval force to convoy them. It needs aircraft-carriers, a submarine fleet, and a powerful and fully-equipped invading army. “Above all, it needs a public willing to accept enormous losses in men and materials. We have many of these requirements, but not nearly enough.”