Evening star., 1943-08-13
Jops Said to Have Sought
Only Time by Axis Alliance

Paciflc's conquered areas on what
Japan has been able to do with the
war materiel she is looting there.
This, plus direct. battle tested evil
dence on what it will take to win
this war. plus. proof that we our
selves, unaided by Britain, have
what it takes and need the help of
Britain only to tighten the task and
swiften its accomplishment.
Unable TO Convert Supplies.
The cold fact of the matter seems
to be that Japan has not been able
to make good enough use of the
ample war materiel she has con-
ouered to transform her from a
second-class power into a flrst-class
power fighting flrst-class war.
She is still, more than 20 months
after starting it, fighting second
class war as indeed we are, too, in
the Pacific. But there are numer-
Gus signs that we eventually will
fight a f1rst-class war there, as we
are doing in Europe, while there are
no signs that Japan will be able to
do so in time to affect the outcome
of the present struggle.
For example, the japanese con-
quered enormous oil deposits in the
Pacific, enough to carry on both
her war and Germany's if it could
be harnessed to the machines of
that war. 1t cannot be, for the
simple reason that the nearest avail
able refneries for that oil are
thousands of miles away in Japan
proper. The day the Japs con-
quered their oil, they began trans
porting it to their mainland for re-
fining on tankers that are just as
vulnerable to attack as our tankers
in the Atlantic were. The tanker
line they thus exposed was as deli
cate as jugular vein and, If al
lowed to continue unchanged and
unimproved against an enemy whose
strength was on the increase, must
inevitably end in catastrophe for
the owner.
There are three ways to improve
a vulnerable line of communications.
One is to reroute tin this case by
moving the refineries closer to the
source of supply. Another is to but
treSs it with greater fire power in
the shape of more and stronger es-
cort vessels. A third is to step up
your capacity to replace its losses.
We used combination of all three
to reinforce our tanker line. We
were able to do so because we have
at our command a virile and pow
erful industrial system equal to the
demands of a first-class war. The
japanese 10 not seem to have.
We were able to harass the Japa-
nese tanker line with our subma-
rine fleet alone. Even when our sub
marine feet was pitifully small in
proportion to the battle arena in
which it had to operate we were
able to sink japanese ships at a
rate faster than japanese ship
building could replace them.
Now our submarine feet is in
creasing rapidly, and we are edg-
Ing toward the point where our
airplanes and warships can be
brought to bear on their tanker line.
But still fhe japanese plod on in
much the same way as on the day
they began.
Each day they fail to strengthen
their tanker line it becomes rela-
lively weaker, They must be acutely
aware of this. Tojo's and radio To-
kio's urgent, yelplike appeals for
more shipping indicate this. Yet the
line remains visibly unstrengthened.
Conveys remain the same size. Es-
cort vessels are OF the same guam
tity and quality. The line remains
as long as it evet was.
tCopyrisht l943, North American News
paper Alliance, Inc)