“NOT GOING SO WELL”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 September 1942, Page 4

“NOT GOING SO WELL”

AFFAIRS IN SOUTH PACIFIC NEW YORK NEWSPAPER CRITICISM. ADVOCACY OF UNIFIED COMMAND. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) (Received This Day, 11.50 a.m.) NEW YORK, September 10. The “New York World Telegram,” in an editorial, says’. “Things are not going so well in the South Pacific. While President Roosevelt was warning the nation that the Japanese undoubtedly would strike hard again, they were doing just that. The Solomons landings are not surprising and probably not important, except as fresh evidence of enemy tenacity regardless of cost, but the continued Japanese gains in New Guinea, where the Allies have had months to perfect their defences, is disturbing. “When the Japanese seized the Gona and Buna bases and swept inland towards Kokoda,” the newspaper adds, “the Australians criticised General MacArthur. His headquarters said General MacArthur was unable to take Gona and Buna or to keep out the Japs because they controlled the seas there, but they could not move further south because of the high and well-guarded Owen Stanley mountain passes. Despite that boast, the Japanese are now reported to be forcing General MacArthur’s mountain passes and also made another raid on Milne Day. It is impossible to fix responsibility when there is a divided command such as afflicts the South Pacific. General MacArthur and Admiral Ghormley are great commanders. Either is competent to take the unified command on the New Guinea-Solomons front. Then why multiply Army and Navy rivalry, and invite lack of cooperation, by putting half an island chain under a general and the other half under an admiral, separating their headquarters by over 5,000 miles, from Australia to Hawaii?”