Japan's Limitations
The Australian Prime Minister, like Mr. Churchill. has con- sistently avoided over-sanguine statements about the course of the war, and it was manifest that the confident speech he made at Melbourne last Tuesday was, as he said, " born of knowledge as to how the war is proceeding." He said that Japan's programme of constant expansion had at last suffered stalemate. He was, of course, speaking primarily of that part of it which is directed against Australia. He reminded his audience that the bombing attacks against the mainland and on Port Moresby, though they had inflicted damage, had been repulsed ; and that the attempt at naval invasion had failed ; thanks to the forces that have now been built up in Australia he defied the enemy to land a large army on her soil. It it certain that no responsible person would make light of the energy, resource and skill with which Japan has pressed the advantages of her own readiness and the unreadiness of the Allies. At Pearl Harbour, in Malaya and at Singapore, in the Dutch East Indies and in Burma, she has driven on victoriously in places rich in raw materials and has established herself in key strategic positions. Her success was due to speed and well-organised concentration of superior strength at points where the Allies were weak. But neither the Japanese nor the Germans are supermen. The former have limited resources, and the vast expansion of their effort over so many widely separated fields of war must be straining them severely. Time, as Mr. Curtin says, is on the side of the United Nations.
Previous page
