A Question of Time

On the fringe of the Japs' island maze in the Southwest Pacific, each side last week did a little footwork to get set for a haymaker:

> On New Guinea Allied troops nearly broke the last Jap beachhead in Papua, at Sanananda. Farther up the New Guinea line a good-sized patrol killed 116 Japs only a few miles south of Salamaua, which is apparently next on General MacArthur's list.

> The Japs were hurriedly throwing strength toward both the New Guinea and lower Solomons areas. Fortnight ago they risked a big convoy to reinforce New Guinea (TIME, Jan. 18). Last week they worked overtime with the "Tokyo Express"--the shuttle line of destroyers taking supplies to Guadalcanal. U.S. bombers attacked three separate flotillas of five, nine, five, in one day. Three destroyers were damaged, 30 Jap planes shot down.

> On Guadalcanal U.S. forces put on their first real offensive in nearly two months, in order to clear Jap resistance off the island, once & for all. Such a cleanup would precede a farther U.S. advance up the Solomons slot--or ease the blow if the Japs came down it. Said Major General Millard F. Harmon, the U.S. Army and Air Force Commander in the Solomons: "It is just a question of time. I don't worry about any offensive effort as far as the Japanese on Guadalcanal are concerned. It is a matter of cleaning them out."

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