TALKS WITH MACARTHUR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 204, 30 August 1943, Page 5

TALKS WITH MACARTHUR

U.S. WAR UNDER-SECRETARY

Recd. 7.30 p.m. Sydney, Aug. 29. The United States Under-Secretary of War, Mr. R. G. Patterson, has arrived in New Guinea for important conferences with General MacArthur. He travelled in the plane in which ha flew from the United States to Australia He was greeted at an operational airport by General MacArthur, Lieut-General Kenney, and other high American officers . Coinciding with this visit an unconfirmed Wasnington report says that General MacArthur is to have full control of operations against the Japanese in the Dutch East Indies and all the islands territory in that area. The South-east Asia Commander, Lora Louis Mountbatten, will direct continental operations. The New York Herald-Tribune’s correspondent says that General MacArthur's Command has been defined in the division oi the South-west Pacific and South-east Asia areas .

The New York Times’ correspondent says: “Lord Mountbatten left the United States for an unannounced destination, probably London. He will later go to Chungking to map the drive against the Japanese. The ultimate programme is ro reopen the Burma Road, drive the Japanese from the southern Asiatic ports, seize control of the China Sea, and increase Allied air strength in China. It is exnected in the United States that Lord Mountbatten will be made a full Admiral in keeping with the importance of his new command.

Also hinting at new blows against the Japanese, the Secretary of the Navy, Colonel Frank Knox, addressing university students in New York, said sea and air power would continue to provide a big punch in the Pacific until Allied troops had landed on the shores of Japan. Since Pearl Harbour the bulk of the American Navy’s sea and air power had been employed in the Pacific theatre Moreover, the Navy assigned the bulk of its new 1 combat ships for battle against its powerful Japanese adversary.