Show One Cant Can't Help But Wonder T THE THE HE SYDNEY Australia Daily Telegram in a front page editorial charged that the first phase of the allied offensive in the tle Solomon Solomon Solomon Solo Solo- mon islands ended unsatisfactorily because of the lack of unity of command in the south Pacific The paper referred to the fact that General Douglas MacArthur supposedly supreme supreme supreme su su- su- su preme commander in the southwest Pacific is actually limited to command over Australia and New Guinea with the Solomons and other Pacific areas east of Australia under separate naval command The Daily Telegraph declared that any belief that a large scale offensive can be successfully successfully successfully suc suc- launched from Australia under such sucha a divided command in the south Pacific is humbug on such sucha a colossal scale that it can have only one answer quick answer quick defeat Then comes the telling criticism If I Washington politics are responsible for this division of command then it is time tune to table all the cards The same point is made in criticism over the small volume of American aid to Australia Aus Aus- Australia with the statement If u the small volume were dictated by expert military decision decision decision de de- de- de well and good If it were dictated by p i party political desire to keep the dramatic personality of MacArthur out of the American public eye then it was treachery to the whole allied cause One cant can't h help lp but wonder if there may not be something to this charge by the Sydney newspaper It is noteworthy that after months of silence General MacArthur just the other day saw fit to publicly renounce any political ambitions Could it be that he felt all the talk back in this country to the effect that he would make an ideal Republican presidential presidential presidential candidate in 1944 had been interfering with his operations in the southwest Pacific Maybe its it's just a coincidence Maybe there isn't any injection of politics into the military operations in the Pacific But one cannot but note that General MacArthur was not in fact made the supreme commander in the southwest Pacific which we understood he would be when he was shifted to Australia Australia- and that for one reason or another he has dropped out of the public eye in recent months One cant can't help but wonder |