Evening star., 1943-02-14
u. S. Pacific Policy Limited
By Lack of Merchant Ships
Allied Decision TO Strike at Europe First Means
Cargo Graft Must Be Concentrated
in the Atlantic
By Constantine Brown.

Washington has been directing the at
tention of the American public to large
extent on Allied operations across the
Atlantic. Some quarters regard even the
mention Of the Pacific as helping Hit
ler."
At Casablanca President Roosevelt
and Prime Minister Churchill, after
long talks with their highest-ranking
military experts, decided on an all-out
offensive intended to bring Hitler and
Mussolini to their knees as soon as pos
sible.
The overpowering personalities of the
two civilian leaders must have influenced
greatly the technical men at the con-
ferences. Before the meetings there still
were military and naval men who Won
dered whether we should continue to
treat the Pacific as the stepchild of AL
lied strategy.
Now that the decision to make drive
against the European continent has been
definitely taken, our action in the Pa
cific area can not be as potent as might
be desired.
1t Is not the lack of men or planes or
even warships which prevents the Amer
lean high command from having more
than limited aggressive attitude in an
area where inferior American-Australian
forces have been able to defeat the Jap
anese on more than one occasion.
Merchant Ships Needed.
The absence of an adequate number
OF merchantmen Is the principal reason
why only limited amount of supplies
and men can be sent to Gen. Douglas
Macarthur and Admiral William Halsey
to enable them to do much with little"
Even before the major submarine of
fensive Of the Nazis has started our
shipping losses in the Atlantic have been
great. The Germans claim 5000, 900 tons
While the Allies have not made the ac-
tual losses know, 1t Is admitted in usually
responsible quarters that we lost be-
tween 100000 and 100000 tons last
year.
The Americana British production over
the same period of time certainly does
not exceed 10000 900 tons of merchant
men. In the "red" column must be added
the damaged ships-no actual figure is
available-which will take much longer
than usual to repair. Our own yards and
those on the west coast of Britain are
so busy producing warships and new
merchantmen that they do not have the
usual facilities to repair damaged ships.
Moreover, the Nazis seem to have in
vented new type of torpedo which has
a much greater damaging power than
those used prior to six months ago. One
of those new German and Japanese en-
gines of destruction rips ship to pieces.
An Allied cruiser was hit recently by one
of the new torpedoes. The old type
would have made hole which could
have been, patched up easily, but the
new torpedo smashed up the bow and
destroyed gum turrst.
InvAsion Fleet Needed.
A landing force such as the one sent
to North Africa, which is considered
small compared to what we may have to
send against the European mainland,
demanded large armada of merchant
men and warships.. Nazi submarines
secuted but did not attack that group of
about 300 ships. The opposition from
French shore batteries and warships was
inconsequential compared to what we
will have to face when We attack the
German-held coasts.
Yet in spite of these advantages We
had to mobilize a huge fleet. In the
next few months the time will come to
send powerful Army with all the nee
essay auxiliaries and supply ships,
against positions strongly held by the
enemY'S shore batteries and we'll pro-