Hero on Ice

Last week the U.S. got a hint--just ahint--of what has been happening to General Douglas MacArthur in Australia.

General MacArthur held a press conference. It was his second since he arrived from the Philippines last March with the words: "I came through, and I am going back." Patently he had not gone back, he had not even started back. He was not going anywhere. His press officers took care to invite senior editors from the length & breadth of Australia; one editor flew 2,000 miles. General MacArthur talked for two hours; he took 50 minutes to answer one question. What he said was off the record. But after he finished U.P.'s Correspondent Harold Guard got one suggestive point through the rigid Army censorship: "Correspondents left the conference with the impression that General MacArthur was a most able officer who was determined to obey orders."

It was obvious from these words that General MacArthur was under orders which made him unhappy, and that these orders had come from Washington. It was also obvious that Washington, not the "GENERAL MACARTHUR'S HEADQUARTERS" in the Australian date lines, was dictating the conduct of the campaign in Australia. A reasonable assumption, though not a stated fact in the dispatches, was that General MacArthur had taken pains to explain his position to the U.S. and Australian newsmen. A commander in the field needs the confidence of the people around him. The newsmen reflected the growing impatience in Australia with what could be called the passive campaign, and with the minor efforts which limited air forces were able to make against the Japs in the islands north of Australia (see p. 26).

One of the reasons for General MacArthur's plight has been apparent for weeks. He is in command of a secondary theater of operations, one that may remain secondary until the great U.S. effort against Hitler in Europe is completed or at least well along. From his words and acts when he first arrived in Australia, it is plain that this state of affairs is precisely the opposite of what he expected when he was ordered to leave Corregidor and the men on Bataan. It is also plain that it is the opposite of what the U.S. people have expected.

One of the best evidences that MacArthur expected something else was the fact that he brought out with him the key men of his Philippines staff (see cut), men whose time and talents are wasted in a passive theater of war. So, in great measure, are General MacArthur's. But he will probably remain in Australia. General Douglas MacArthur is on ice.

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