Unfinished Business

In the lower reaches of the southwest Pacific, where he had been successful beyond belief, the Jap still had a lot of unfinished business on his books. Until Douglas MacArthur and his Australian and Dutch allies were richer in the specie of war, they would have to be content with joggling the Jap's elbow and spilling ink over the accounts on the most profitable page of his ledger.

So the United Nations command hung grimly to its toehold on the near side of the vast island of New Guinea (one-tenth the area of the U.S.) and strove to shake loose the hold of the Jap on the other side. The Jap bounced right back, raided the Allies' New Guinea base at Port Moresby almost daily.

This was dingdong business, and likely to be for some time, since each side needed more power to strike a decisive blow. The Jap, for one, was piling up his tools. Pilots told of increasing numbers of Jap ships headed for New Guinea and New Britain off to the east. The United Nations knew that might mean anything, even an assault on Australia itself. They halfway hoped it would come, felt more confident as the days went by that they could stop the Jap. But they were less sure than they were a week ago.

Scoop in New Caledonia. Meanwhile the United Nations, sure that if they could hold on to New Guinea's foothold they would have a jump-off place against the Jap, forestalled him in another south Pacific area. Washington announced that U.S. troops had landed in New Caledonia, a Free French island 700 miles east of Australia. It was a prize the Jap would have given a lot of men to take, for it lies athwart the lifeline from the U.S. to Down Under. It is also incredibly rich in minerals --No. 2 world producer of nickel, No. 5 of chromite. New Caledonia was worth anybody's taking. And the Jap, at least temporarily stalled in New Guinea, had been scooped.

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