Imperial Valley Press

A SECOND HAND ANSWER
TO A PRIMARY QUESTION

Almost universally, Americans have wondered during recent months whether the United Nations were assigning any large amount of materials and ships to the South Pacific war zone, where for a while it looked as if Gen. Douglas MacArthur was going to have to get along with the leavings of the European war theater.

The answer is on the war.
Not in figures, which are always subject to juggling anyway, but in results.
And that is what counts most.

It may be a month, it may be two months, before we know the answer. But it will come.
It will come when we know the full results of the struggle to hold Guadalcanal against all that Japan can throw against it.

Our fighting chiefs in the South Pacific knew that Japan was going to use everything at her command in an effort to retake the southern Solomons. These fighting chiefs have proved in the fire of battle that they are capable of outwitting and outfighting the enemy. Only one thing will prevent them from winning a smashing victory in the Solomons.
Lack of enough men and materials.

If our production was greater and our supply lines stronger, this would be an ideal time to strike back at the Japanese on another front, where they would be extremely vulnerable. Japan undoubtedly has concentrated a large share of her fighting machinery against Guadalcanal.
She has pulled planes out of other areas, and fighting men too, to make the big drive in the Solomons possible. That means she is weak elsewhere.

The trouble is, we are, too. There has not been time to get sufficient materials to enough places to take advantage of such an opportunity as now presents itself.

But there has been time to get the men and materials to the Solomons, where we knew a big blow was going to be struck.
The fighting men undoubtedly asked for what they needed. If they got what they asked for, the Solomons should provide us with the biggest victory of the war thus far.