The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-04-15
Air Minister Stresses Cuns ming of Enemy in In.
 pending Menace 30 ENEMY PLANES LOST
 IN NEW GUINEA RAID Yesterdays Attack Seen as Prelude to Expected
 New Offensive
BY DON CAswELL

CuNlted Press Staff COEresrendensD
 General MacArthur's Head. quarters, Australia, April 10. - (UP) -- A warning that ga great onslaught with all the savagery of which the Japanese mind is capable" is impending against AuStralia was voiced officially today after a military spokesman said that a great enemy naval combat fleet was maintained constantly at Truk, only three daya sailing from New Guinea,
 Australian Air Minister Arthur s, Braketord, addressing . war loan rally at Melbourne. said that the peril to Australia again was as great as in late lS4l,
 T warn you that Australia Is in danger grim danger - in tho islands along our northern perin0~ ter" Drakeford said,
 lSal Peril Matched
 
 "There looms an impending ne- mace of a great onslaught with alk the savagery Of which the Japanese mind Is capable. The dire peril tn which Australia stood in late l94l Is matched today by the coming Japanese blow of which Prime Mln@ ister John Curtin and Gen, Douglas Macarthur have warned and which is being prepared with all the Asia tic cunning and thoroughness uf which the enemy is capable"
 A spokesman for MaeArtuhr earlier said that Japan was main taining big naval combat fleet in the TruE area.
 In addition, he said, Japan has concentrated 250,000 tons of mer- chant shipping around Rahaul. New Britain, alone during the past seV- eral months,
 The spokesman's comment appar- ently was designed to answer Q. s. Secretary of Navy Prank Knoxa statement earlier this week that ha knew of no Japanese naval concen- trations in the southwest Pacific,
 Truk, Japan's principal naval base in the south Pacific. lies l,l50 miles north of the Allied base at Buna on the north shore of New Guinea.
 Jaoan's bid for mastery of the air in the southwest Pacific. regarded here as prelude to the expected new offensive. cost her another 90 planes over New Guinea yesterday. a communique announced. but AL lied observers warned that the enemy'S air strength in the area still had been hardly dented.
 The latest Japanese aerial assault was launched with upwards of 100 planes against Milne Bay at the eastern tip of New Guinea.
 Besides Truk and Rabaul, Mac- Arthur's spokesman said. Japan has other bases on an arc passing through Palau. Manila and Soera- baja. all within easy concentration range of a 2.500-mile battle line which envelopS the upper half of Australia.
 Conveys Reinforce Fee
 Constant conveys operating be~ yond range of our air forces are be- ing pushed forward to reinforce the enemy" he said.
 He described Gen. Sir Thomas Blamey's recent estimate of Japa- nese strength in the islands above Australia of 100000 as ''conserva- tive"
 The spokesinaais remarks were in answer to questions by newspapers men about Japanese naval concen~ tration north of Australia.
 CThe Nazi-controlled Swedish Tel- egraph Bureau reported from Tokyo that Japanese military circles re~ garded the stepped-up aerial acc tivity over New Guinea ard the sol~ omons as possibly a prelude to "exs tensive military operations in that area within a few weeks.
 CThe dispatch said considerable air, infantry and artillery Seam.