DANGER IN DELAY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 2, 4 January 1943, Page 5

DANGER IN DELAY

SITUATION IN PACIFIC DISCUSSED MR. CURTINS APPEAL FINDS WIDESPREAD SUPPORT

(Special Australian Correspondent—N.Z.P.A.) (Recd. 9 p.m.) Sydney, Jan. 3. The warnings given by Mr. J. Curtin of the dangers of delaying an accelerated offensive against Japan are finding support from many quarters in the United States and have also provoked a wide discussion on the best way to defeat Japan. Overseas war correspondents in this theatre have reinforced Mr. Curtin’s views emphasising the mounting problems which may confront the united Nations if the Japanese are given time to entrench themselves strongly in their outpost positions. It is reported from Washington that Mr. Curtin also made official representations for the strengthening of the Allied forces in the racitic. Describing the Pacific war as “the stepchild ol the United Nations,” the New York Post assesses Mr. Curtin’s statement as an appeal to the American people, over the heads of their military leaders, to get more war material to tne South-west Pacific.

“Some day the real importance of the Pacific war is going to be appreciated in Washington,' declares an American broadcasting commentator, W. Henry, who recently toured the South-west Pacific war zone. ’‘Let us hope that the day will not be too long put off. I can testify personally to the force of Mr. Curtin’s views. T.|ls is the feeling shared by everyone wno goes to the Pacific zone.” Mr. Curtin’s virtual plea for limited assistance, enabling the tipping in the Allied favour of the “delicately poised” situation in this theatre, has embarked many commentators on a discussion of strategies for the defeat of Japan.

“Up to now we have only nibbled at the fringes of the new Japanese Empire,” declares the New York Daily News. “Even after months of trying we have not pushed the Japanese oil Guadalcanar and Papua. “Victory over Japan appears impossible until we can either blockade Japan into starvation or smash the main enemy fleet at sea and mount an offensive against Japan from Hawaii, plus an air offensive from Siberia or China.”

The widely-syndicated American columnist, Giloert Cant, writes: “It is clear that from Australia is not the way to Tokio. China must be reinlorced, especially in the air, if we are to beat Japan in measurable time ’’ “Delay in China and the Pacific is regarded less as an invitation to disaster than delay in Europe and North Africa,” says the New York HeraldTribune, quoting the report just issued by Mr. Roosevelt’s Board of Economic Warfare, which reads: “Unlike Germany, Japan has not reached the peak of production. Japan nas neither the shipping nor the processing capacity to use fully her newlyacquired raw materials and conquered manpower in South-east Asia. Increased attacks on Japanese merchant shipping by air and sea must be made so that we can weaken Japan’s chance in 1943 to make lull the use of her looted raw materials.”

Admiral Halsey’s prophecy of complete victory lor the Allies in 1943 is regarded among war commentators in Australia as .significant rather '*' f the tremendous rise in Allied fortunes than z placing a strict time limit on the wai.

The view here is epitomised by the Chicago Sun correspondent, Eiiwaru Angiy, who wrote in liis latest despatch: “The people will have to make up their minds that the Pacific war will be long, costly and bloody. It is only a few weeks ago that we began to stop losing to the Japanese.”

The Sydney Sun suggests that “Given comparatively new planes and the ships required, then Australia (1> would soon cease to be a worry either to herself or her friends; <2> would become an impregnable base to feed an evehtual direct attack on Japan, probably by way of China; and (3) would be able to release manpower and material for offensive ins lead ol defensive fronts. Without planes and shins the United Nations’ war effort, in the South Pacific would have to continue the hard and bloody ’vay,