Evening star., 1942-10-16
Sees AII-Out Effort
By Jops in SoIomons
MiIitory Critic Believes Foe
Will Pay Any Price
To Win Present Bottle
By Mai. George Fielding Eliot.

By Maj. George Fielding Eliot.
Our position in the Solomon Islands is
still uncertain, as indeed 1t must remain
until 1t is much farther extended. As
long as the japanese are close at hand
and able to reinforce their advance bases
almost at will, our hold on Guadalcanal
and Tulagi must continue to be pre-
carious.
Nothing is more certain than that the
Japanese will continue to try to push us
out Of those islands as long as they are
able to do 50, and, on the other hand,
our only purpose in being there, from
the long-range point Of view, must be
that announced by Admiral King at the
time the landings were first ef1ected-to
use our new foothold as base for fur
ther offensive operations.
The Japanese purposes in attempting
to eject us are both offensive and de-
fensive. From the offensive point OF
view, they cannot hope to develop any
attack against the east coast Of Australia
or against our line of communications
with that island continent as long as we
remain in the Solomons. Moreover, they
cannot concentrate forces for major
offensive anywhere else-say, against
Russia or China or India-unless they
can be certain that they will not have to
pay the price of losing more ground in
the Southwestern Pacific. Even If the
Japanese strategic policy were from now
on to be one purely of defending their
gains they could not afford to leave us
in the Solomons, building up striking
power which we will eventually employ
to drive them out OF the New Guinea
area altogether.
Were this to happen, as previously
pointed out in these articles, they could
hardly hope to remain in the Marshall
and Gilbert Islands and We would come
into possession of whole network OF
potential submarine bases from which
our undersea craft could operate against
the vital Japanese shipping lanes with
even greater success than that which
they are now enjoying. We should keep
this fact prominently in mind, because
just as the German submarines in the
Atlantic are a deadly peril to our vital
communications, so our submarines in
the Pacific are deadly peril to the vital
communications of Japan. This fact, in
the judgment of this writer, is the key to
the whole Pacific naval situation at the
present moment.
The Japanese cannot replace their
losses either of naval or merchant ship
ping at anything like the same rate
that we can: they have already lost
something like 20 per cent of their
merchant fleet (Which does not take into
account the very large number of ships
which must be laid up for repairs on
account Of damage, so that every repair
shop in Japan must now be suffering
from serious congestion), and they are
not IN a position to give adequate escort
to all movements of the merchant Ship
ping upon which all of their military
enterprises depend. They simply can
not afford to allow us to obtain better
bases and bases closer to Japan itself for
the operations of our submarines.
In addition to this, it may be noted
that the expulsion of the Japanese from
the entire New Guinea area would expose
the Western Carolines, to direct attack
The New Guinea area bears much the
same relation to Truk as Midway does
to Pearl Harbor.
1t is, therefore, quite likely that the
present japanese operations in the Sol
onions represent a full-dress attack
intended to expel us from the Guadal-
canal-Tulagi area at any risk and re-
gardless of cost.
The risks assumed already may be very
great The reported bombardment of
the air field on Guadalcanal seems to
have been carried out by vessels carrying
artillery of considerable size-possibly
the old battleships of the Kirishima
class, which the Japanese risked within
reach Of our shore-based aircraft off
Luzon and again in the Midway opera
ton, and with which they may be pre-
pared to take chances now in the Solo,
mons. These vessels carry batteries of
eight 14-inch guns each and are there
fore capable OF inf1icting heavy damage
Oll ally oIlOI z Inc 1dCG CQ6C
a Japanese landing in force took place
| soon after the bombardment would sug-
| gest that the damage effected was at
| least sufficient to reduce temporarily the
scale of our air operations and to enable
| the Japanese to land what seems to be
a larger force than anything they have
been previously able to throw ashore on
| Guadalcanal.
The impression appears to prevail in
informed quarters in Washington though
the official communique does not say so,
that the Japanese have landed artillery
and tanks. On the other hand, our War
Department has announced that Army
ground forces are now present on Quad
alcanal to reinforce the marines. 1t
is quite possible, therefore, that major
struggle for possession of the airport may
develop; and it is equally possible that
the Solomon Islands area may be about
to see the first clash between American
and Japanese capital ships.
(copyright, 1912. New York Tribune. Inc)
Readers Comment on
Mr.. Wilkes Tour.
! To the Editor of The Star.