Evening star., 1943-08-08
Admiral King Hints
China Holds Key 10
Final Defeat Of Japs
By the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
In an unusual interview on Allied
global strategy, Admiral Ernest J.
King yesterday forecast powerful at
tacks at strategic Japanese posi-
tons in the Pacific, but indicated
the key to final victory over Japan
lies in China.
Our Asiatic ally must be kept in
the war, the admiral said, for it
occupies, in respect to Japan, vital
place analogous to that held by
Russia in respect to Germany.
You can imagine what the situa-
ton would be if China were out of
the war" the admiral declared
! OF Russia, he said that, boiled
down to it's simplest terms, and
soversimplified, the grand strategy of
war in Europe is that Russia has
the geographical position and the
.manpower that is paramount in re-
gard to Germany
Divert Nazis From Russia.
''In order to take advantage of
that basic fact" he continued, two
things follow. We must get into
Russia all the munitions we can
possibly get in there to implement
that manpower and exploit that po-
sition. 1t further follows that the
Allies are bound to exert every pos
sible effort to divert German forces
from the Russian front so that the
Russians can do even better"
He did not touch on what has to
be done in order to keep China in
the war, though he noted that lit
is all too apparent what the diff
sculties are in getting supplies to
China" (The method most fire.
uuently speculated on is the launch
ing this fall of a campaign to drive
the japanese out of Burma and re-
open the Burma Road At present
all supplies to China move by air
from India)
admiral King, commander in
chief of the United States Fleet
and a member of the highest Allied
war councils, discussed the funda-
mentals of present strategy in an
interview with reporters. The con-
ference was requested by the news
papermen because of the anniver-
sary of the landings on Guadalcanal.
Meets Press in Shirt Sleeves.
Shirt-sleeved and smiling, Ad-
miral King received the reporters in
his headquarters in the Navy De-
partment.
While the main effort of the Allies
has been directed against Germany
and Italy, the admiral explained,
Pacific operations thus far are
rather more than what are COM
monty called holding operations. "
He said this was true because we
have a general plan whereby we
maintain unremitting pressure on
the japanese wherever they may be
got at with the means available"
Amplifying that, he said the con-
certed plan being followed calls for
undertaking those offensive opera
tions which will lead to two things:
One. cramping the enemy communi-
cations still more and, two, at the
same time taking away from the
enemy the positions which he holds
and which enable us to give him
more he'll as we go along"
That's the general concept" he
said, adding that there are no opera
tions in the Pacific which can be
called in military parlance "eccen-
trio" Those. he explained are ac-
tions which seem attractive and
profitable but which are really of
the main line of effort.
Struck at Ripe Time.
The admiral said there had been
"some very caustic criticism from
some quarters - fortunately not
videspread-abou the Guadalcanal
operations.
The American attack on Guadal-
canal, he said, was in effect
natural" and 'if we had not acted
promptly with the means at hand,
we would simply have allowed trou-
BILE to pile up for us"
For a time then, things went
rather slowly" in the South and
Southwest Pacific areas, Admiral
King said, but that was due to
what he called "a lack of means '
Now. he said, the situation has
reached the point where 1t Is pos
sible to have an advance under way
in the Solomons and another ,ad-
vance in the New Guinea area, all
under the direction of Gen. Douglas
Macarthur.