PACIFIC REVIEW

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 65, 19 March 1943, Page 5

PACIFIC REVIEW

PLANS FOR AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE REVELATION OF DRASTIC CHANGE i Special Australian Correspondent—N.Z.P.A.) Reed. 6 p.m. Sydney, March 18. General MacArthur on Wednesday met war correspondents on the first anniversary of his arrival in Australia trom the Philippines. In an interview lasting two hours he discussed the main events of the year in the southern Pacific. In a minute, detail of his review of the Pacific war he answered in advance a barrage of planned Press questions. General MacArthur praised the work of war correspondents in this area and told them that no brake would be applied to criticism, except where it was based on false premises or incomplete information. After correspondents were in possession of all facts, no attempts would be made to shade oi dictate their opinions. He had given the Press reporls almost as fast as they were received from the front line.

The correspondents were impressed with the quid confidence with which General MacArthur spoke of the Allies' ability to maintain a successful holding war in this theatre. However, he made it clear that big problems lay ahead “Australia's war strategy was drastically revised after General MacArthur took command on the- Southwest Pacific front,’’ says the Sydney Daily Telegraph correspondent. “Our defence plan then conceived that the islands to the north would be lost and that north Queensland and Darwin would be over-run. Provision had been made for organised resistance behind a line drawn west from Brisbane. General MacArthur considered the conception of this strategy to be defeatist and fatal to Australia's safety. He changer the strategic conception with the basic thought that the battle for Australia would be settled in the littorial islands to the nortn, north-east and the north-west. The new strategy was to make these islands the battleground—win, lose or draw.”

The Japanese have been repulsed in five major acions in the South-west Pacific since the development of General MacArthur’s new strategy, in which ait power played a vital part. The actions were fought in the Coral Sea, at Milne Bay, Buna, Gona and the Basmarck Sea. The Allied success in gaining command of the air contr buted most importantly to the enemy reverses. It is now revealed that captured Japanese documents disclosed that the enemy planned to take the Allied main New Guinea base at Port Moresby with a force of 20 transports. It is also admitted that the Allied strategy conceived the occupation of the Buna area, but a lack of ail power at the time prevented the Allies from beating the Japanese to this base. As the enemy later discovered, strong air power is essential to the maintenance of any ground installations.

“Our air strength was then so weak that we had no chance of stopping the Japanese landing in Buna,” declares the Telegraph writer. “Our bomber forces to-day could knock out a convoy of the size that went into Buna in the matter of hours. The Japanese also erred in building up their strength at Buna without adequate warning facilities. They lost more than 10v planes on the ground because of this defect."

The final stages of the Papuan can: paign in which General MacArthur employed air transport on a mass scale to move troops and equipment, must figure among classic examples ol the changing art of war. However, this reverse, together with those subsequently inflicted upon the Japanese, has not prevented enemy encroachment in other areas, particularly to the north of Australia. Nevertheless General MacArthur has kept Australia inviolate and has established valuable bases for the eventual development of an Allied offensive.

War correspondents who last met General MacArthur about six months ago noted many personal changes. One writer described him as being slightly heavier and certainly more jovial and informal. At the interview General MacArthur wore a leather air force jerkin, a gift from members of his air command before he went to New Guinea to direct the Papuan campaign. Formerly a cigar smoker, he was smoking a heavy pipe. He spoke with a deliberate mat-ter-01-factness and made no attempt at a dramatic effect. A restless and inveterate room pacer, General MacArthur's familiar gestures and mannerisms were on this occasion less in evidence than formerly.