Evening star., 1944-09-11
Nation FoiIs to Realize
Toughness of Jupun
Navy to be Left Alone to Fight
In Pacific, Says Lawrence

W S0PSsb
Navy to be Left Alone to Fitht
In Pacific, Says Lawrence
By David Laurence.
Do the American people realize the
crisis that lies ahead Of them In the
next few months or do they believe that
when the moment the European war Is
over they will have peace" and q
chance to get back to normal?
This question will be asked again
and again as the defeat Of the Nazis
comes to pass. For 1t Is doubtful wheth-
er the public has begun to grasp even
remotely the spot that the United
States Navy will be in as 3,700, 900 Amer
ican boys are left virtually alone to
fight the cruellest war in all our history.
The American Army-or a large seq
ment Of 1t will be demobilizing. The
British Army will be demobilizing. The
Canadian Army will be demobilizing. A
vast number of British and American
planes and pilots in Europe will be
useless. For there are not enough air.
fields or bases available or likely to be
In the Far East to handle the planes.
The war against Japan is largely a
naval war. China is beaten and help
less. The Japanese have won the war
in China and everybody knows 1t ex-
cept the American people from whom
the facts have been kept by an Ameri-
can censorship and a series of evasive
statements from Chungking designed
to make the people in the United States
believe that China Is one of the four
great military powers of the world.
Seven-year Struggle.
1t isn't that the Chinese haven't
fought valiantly. They have struggled
heroically for seven years against a
ruthless foe. But the Allies did not
come to their rescue in time. Prime
Minister Churchill and President
Roosevelt had that responsibility in
their plan making during 1912 and 1s43
and decided to defeat Hitler first in
stead OF Japan and Germany simultan-
eously.
1t will be argued that to have done
otherwise was impossible and imprac-
ticable and the whole world has been
told that the Roosevelt Churchill glob-
al strategy was fiawless. 1t has been
protected from criticism by a political
censorship. But the truth will come
out some day when some congressional
committee with a little courage can
reveal all the facts for the public to
Judge for itself why China was de-
serted and the American Navy left to
hold the bag in the Pacific.
The original plan was for bases on
the China coast to be obtained for our
Navy. But this presupposed the ability
of the Allies to keep those bases supplied
and protected from inside China and
this in turn meant the opening Of some
road into China from India. The
Mountbatten campaigns colossal fail
| ure-was designed to bring that about
promptly and certain aid to Chang
Kai-shek was promised In 1943 and
later not consummated due to the pref
erence in supply given the European
theater
China Overrun.
Today japanese armies have overru
China. The help from supply bases in
India is relatively negligible and the
American Navy is forced to fight alone
in the Central and North Pacific. Aid
from Russia would be welcome indeed
but 1t is of secondary Importance now
in point of time for 1t will take a year
or more to make that kind OF help
effective.
So the American Navy and Marine
Corps and some Army units, ground and
air. will have to bear the brunt OF the
struggle. Many thousands Of American
boys will have to pay the supreme price
for this protracted strategy even as
workers at home run in a panic from
war plants to other permanent" jobs
and leave impaired the production side
so vitaily needed to keep the fiow of
munitions to the Pacific.
How can the American people be made
to realize that the worst phase of the
war is yet to come and that when the
Nazis collapse the war just begins for
the 100000 or more Americans in the
Pacific? The British Fleet, of course.
will help but we have plenty OF naval
strength already. There will be some
help from other directions but the avail
able bases are small and the Japanese
are fortified on their main isXnds which
will take several costly battles by war
ships and our air forces to penetrate.
This autumn is not the time to relax
but to redouble all effort so as to defeat
Japan at least by March, 1916, which is
l8 months away.
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