SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 86, Issue 117, 21 May 1942, Page 5

SOUTH-WEST PACIFIC

“ALL QUIET” REPORT JAPANESE ATTACKS ON PORT MORESBY IMPORTANCE OF AUSTRALIA Special Aus. Correspondent N.Z.P.A. (Recd. 11.15 p.m.) Sydney, May 20. No combat activity occurred in the South-west Pacific war zone yesterday, and Allied operations were limited to reconnaissance, states the 33rd communique issued by General MacArthur’s headquarters. This is the second “all quiet’’ report during the past week, but other daily communiques recount that the air war over New Guinea is continuing with undiminished intensity. As well as the Messerschmitt 109 type of fighters the Japanese are now using a new type of heavy Army bomber, a long-nosed machine stated to be the reply to America’s Flying Fortress. American fighter pilots, however, cio not regard Japan’s latest bomber as comparable with the Fortress. A raid this week, when 16 new enemy bombers flew in tight formation, resulted in Allied fighters shooting down two without loss to themselves. a Port Moresby has now had 52 raids. The first raid was made on February t 3. The latest raid, employing 34 heavy q bombers with an escort of 15 Zero fighters, when more than 200 bombs L

were dropped, was the heaviest attack v yet made on this, the principal out- 1 post of Australian defence. Most of t the bombs dropped were of the anti- : personnel and “daisy-cutter" variety. I but the damage was light. Only one r J ■ service casualty was caused. S Military commentators continue to P emphasise that the growing weight of n his air attacks against Port Moresby e is an expression of the enemy’s deter- < mination to remove this flnaking menace before continuing his southward aggression. Newspapers, in editorials, stress the need for still more men. guns, ships and planes in the South-west Pacific. “Japan is mobilising sea, land and air power close to the United StatesAustralia supply route,” states the Sydney Daily Telegraph. “That done, she will turn on us. With what we have and what America has sent us we would fight hard—but it would be a desperate defensive fight.” The fact that Australia and New Zealand are the only South-west < Pacific bases from which Japan can be s attacked is also emphasised. a “If, now that the Allies have de* t liberately chosen Australia as their o ' South-west Pacific base (there is none o other left). Australia should be eliminated, then the war in the Pacific d may be lost,” says the Sydney Morn- \ ing Herald in an editorial. “There are t no grounds for pessimism, however. c 1 We are vastly stronger than we were ! r three months ago.” t ' The growing realisation in Britain s of the importance of the Pacific war c is also favourably commented upon, f The declaration by Mr. Attlee that Australia must be reinforced “comes g as proof of the indissolubility of the s ties of the Empire and the glory of j the cause for which it and the Allies ’] stand,” says the Sydney Sun. y WOULD BE BITTER BLOW { t JAPANESE INVASION OF ' AUSTRALIA J r (Reed. 7.30 p.m.) London. May 19. T Thi? Daily Express, in a leader, ® says: “We cannot write off Australia s as America’s business any more than we can write off the defeat of Hitler as Stalin’s business. The urge to attack Hitler is burning in the people of Britain. We are not demanding a l second front in Europe as a reprisal 1 front. We ask it deliberately, as it e means beating the Axis. A Japanese E ' invasion of Australia would be the c bitterest blow the Empire has yet had . to take. The invasion of Australia is y no longer a choice for the Japanese. ( J It is a necessity. They must smash s j the Allied hammer in Australia before ? it is big enough to reach out and use ’ the East Indies as its anvil. The Jap- i > anese war machine must be stopped j j and broken by the Allied forces in j Australia before it has a chance to t ’ land.” | JAPANESE AIMS 5 1 C DISCLOSED BY MAPS (Recd. 7.50 p.m.) London, May 19. The Chinese Government has come into possession of an officially approv- i 1 ed map published in Tokio snowing \ j the projected scope of the Japanese j “prosperity sphere,” says a Chungking t spokesman. Describing the map, he t said the western boundary runs up the 2 Persian Gulf, thence to the Caspian j Sea, and onward to the Ural Mountains. Thus, in addition to China. t Indo-China, Thailand, Malaya, Burma, f India, Iran and Siberia, the “sphere' . includes a huge oceanic area embracx ing the Philippines, the Netherlands , L East Indies, New Guinea, the northern tip of Australia (including Darwin). . also Guam Yap and the whole of Sak- ' halin Island, but it does not include ( Hawaii. The purpose of the Japanese offensive in Chekiang is to prevent any possible springboard attack on Japan. I -