Mutual Neutralization

"I do not think the Japanese will attempt a full occupation of Australia."

It was not an Australian who said this last week, not a U.S. guesser. It was a burly man-without-a-country, Hubertus J. van Mook, who had been Lieutenant Governor of the Dutch East Indies. He was in Melbourne, where Douglas MacArthur was training a joint force of Australians and Americans for come-what-might.

Dr. van Mook was of the opinion that an open assault on Australia would be very risky because of the extended lines of communication and problems of transport. He thought the Japanese might merely try to neutralize Australia as a base for offensive operations by the United Nations.

How the United Nations' forces in Australia should be used was up to General MacArthur and his staff. But as to how much reinforcement should reach Australia, and therefore how great to the Japanese the risk of attacking Australia would become, and therefore how right or wrong Dr. van Mook would prove to be--that decision rested in Washington. There, last week, the strategy makers weighed the war zones of the world-and seemed to be leaning toward the land mass of Europe as the place for the A-1 priorities.

The newly formed Pacific Council of the United Nations met for the first time around the long table of the U.S. Cabinet in the White House. President Roosevelt treated the members to a long review of Pacific fighting since Dec. 7. What some of the gentlemen said when they came out did not suggest that they had been fired by a vision of immediate and total concentration on Pacific warfare.

"Most helpful," drawled Lord Halifax, "most useful."

"A very satisfactory beginning," said Dr. Herbert V. Evatt, Australian Minister for External Affairs.

Said China's Foreign Minister Dr. T. V. Soong: "We will be coming to grips with the whole war situation more & more now."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.