Evening star., 1943-04-17

- VI II IL d l
more help is David Lawrence.
forthcoming, but it is evident that
the plan is to hold the line and not
endeavor to put on any major or
grand-scale offensive.
The reason. of course for this
plan to maintain the defensive is
that there are supposedly not enough
weapons to 60 around in the global
war and not enough ships to trans
port what we are producing.
But since Prime Minister Churchill
and President Roosevelt have de-
cided on putting all emphasis on the
European and African areas, nat
urally high officials of the Army and
Navy here must conform to that
policy. They cannot criticize. They
must accept the decisions, no mat
ter what they think of them.
Kenney Contests Views.
No such rule binds members of
Congress and, incidentally. within
certain limits it doesn't altogether
suppress comments by the officers in
the Southwest Pacific 1t may we'll
be asked why 1t Gen. George c..
Kenney. chief of the Army Air
Forces there, in public comment
passed by the censor, takes issue
with the spokesmen of the admins
tration here, who indicate that the
threat of Japanese attack is not
as serious as it has been painted.
There is far more significance to
the comments of the generals in the
Southwest Pacific than meets the
eye. 1t is not comfortable position
for either Gen. Macarthur or Gen.
Kenney to appear to be differing
with their own superiors in WASH
ington - Secretaries Stimson and
Knox. But it may be assumed that
the latter must publicly at least de-
fend the Presidents policy. They
are spokesmen who are bcnnd by
cabinet policies.
AS for the Generals in the field.
they must have weighed carefully
the implication of their comments.
They must have known that the
whole country would look askance
at such contradictory and even
critical observations. The reason
can only be that our commanders
believe a debacle of major proper
tions threatens our forces in the
Southwest Pacific and that they
hope that if it comes and the Amer
lean people grow indignant about it,
they will not blame the commanders
who are left to hold the bag
Can't Govern japanese.
Military men do not like to be
Inundated by defeats that come
from superior numbers, and while
they do not hesitate to put up the
best fight they can. they also do not
hesitate to ask for sufficient forces
with which to confront the enemy
III an approaching battle.
Also, while it is simple matter
to make everybody in Washington
adhere to the global decisions OF the
President and the Prime Minister
and 1t probably is easy enough to
send word to Gems. Macarthur and
Kenney to keep quiet and conform,
the Japanese are under no such
obligation.
1t is to be expected that Tokios
general will take advantage of the
Anglo-American decision to subor-
dinate the Japanese war to the fight
on Hitler Indeed, Hitler probably is
egging the japanese on to make
further advances toward Australia
and capture more territory so as to
show the world that the United
States is not as powerful as it pro-
fesses to be. For, with a navy and
an aircraft production smaller by
far than ours, Japan is now enjoy
ing numerical superiority in the
South Pacific both in planes and
ships.
Time Favors Japs.
AS long as Japan can be held at
bay. criticism will not be considered
particularly persuasive. but once the
tide Of battle begins to 60 against
us in the Pacific, the public will
remember the Macarthur -Kenney
plea for help that wasn't granted.
Ever since the CaSablanca confer
ence, where the decision was made
to concentrate on Hitler and take
chances on what happens in the
Far East, Japan evidently has been
increasing her forces She is report
ed to have sent 100000 men to the
string of islands which constitute a
sort of wall between her newly con-
quered territories and the Indian
Ocean. She is also known to have
built up her airfields and to have
sent more and more bombers, as
well as fighters. to airfields near
Australia.
Apparently the Japanese think
they can keep us busy in Northern
Australia and New Guinea for an
other couple of years while the
Toxic government builds the neces-
sary machine tools and factories to
put out heavier and heavier bombers
and more and more ships. Time
works for the japanese. And Gems.
Macarthur and Kenney believe in
telling the facts to the American