ARMED FORCES IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25388, 10 January 1948, Page 7

ARMED FORCES IN AUSTRALIA

POOR RESPONSE TO

RECRUITING ) (Rec. 7 p.m.) CANBERRA, January 9. Lack of recruits for the permanent Army has forced the Australian Government to reverse its decision on recruiting. Australia now will depend indefinitely on her Interim Army for the major part of her military defence. The Government has decided to reenlist members of the Interim Army for another two years instead of progressively discharging them. Last August the Government started a recruiting drive aimed at providing 17,000 men for the permanent Army. At the same time re-enlistments in the Interim Army were discontinued. The response to the recruiting has been so poor that the Government will encourage the present serving members to volunteer for another two years. The Interim Army has a present strength of 21.000. of whom 10,000 men are serving in Japan. Enlistments in the Australian Regular Army in the latter half of 1947 totalled only 1600. making the Regular Army strength 4100 men. MOTOR-CYCLE USED BY EMIGRANTS COUPLE’S JOURNEY FROM LONDON (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, January 9. Reluctant to wait two years for a passage to New Zealand, Mr James Wright and his wife, of Hanworth, London, packed their belongings into a motor-cycle and side-car and travelled 4500 miles of the way. Mrs Wright, who arrived in Sydney to-day by the British steamer Mill Hill, said that they had bought a farm in South Gippsland, and had cancelled their New Zealand arrangement®. The couple left London on August 20 and rode to Folkestone, where they took the car ferry to Boulogne. They then travelled to Paris and Marseilles, whence a Greek ship took them to Alexandria.

Their route took them through Cairo. Transjordan, Persia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The last stretch of their motorcycle journey was across 880 miles of desert to Bagdad. They took ship at Basra for New Zealand, but answered advertisements for a farm in Melbourne. BOOKS BANNED IN AUSTRALIA 100 REMOVED FROM LIST SYDNEY. January 8. Customs officials disclose that about 100 books, some of which have been on the banned list for 40 years, have now been removed from the list In Australia, such removals are not publicised, and booksellers and dealers say that they are only just discovering that books which they knew were on the, banned list had been released 10 years ago. Among the books on which the ban has been lifted are Balzac's “Droll Tales,” Defoe’s “Moll Flanders," “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley ‘‘Well of Loneliness” by Radcliffe Hall, and “Farewell to Arms,” by Ernest Hemingway. These were released apparently because they are acknowledged classics, and thereby entitled to general sale and distribution. Communist officials say that there is now no prohibition on the importation or sale of Communist literature. Cheap editions of Rabelais and Boccaccio are still banned. CRICKET SHEFFIELD SHIELD GAME (Rec. 11 p.m.) SYDNEY, January 9 A ,% r . th e opening batsmen had put on 124 for the first wicket, New South Wales failed to maintain its high scoring rate In a Sheffield Shield cricket match against South Australia to-day. New South Wales, in Its first innings, scored 305 for seven wickets 'Morris 78, Lukeman 52, Barnes 85). Bowling for South Australia, Noblet took two wickets for 47, and Dooland took two for 94. AMERICANS MISSING IN CHINA ONE MARINE REPORTED KILLED _ NEW YORK January 8. The Chinese garrison commander at Tsmgtao reported to-day that Chinese Communists had killed one of five United States Marines who became lost on a hunting trip in the North China area on Christmas Day. The correspondent of the Associated Press at Tsingtao adds that headquarters there had reported that four Mannes disappeared in Communist territory on a holiday hunting trip, and a fifth, who was absent without ea . ve r,? -3 ’ missing in the same area. A Chinese official said that the ieep used by the party of four was aban- °£ ne< t,hey°nd the Government lines. The Navy said that the vehicle had been looted and wrecked. eorrespondent in Nanking reports that four Americans en route to Hankow from Yencheng are missing, and are presumed to have been taken prisoner by the Commutriste. miss,ne Persons have been identified as a medical missionary. Dr. Eric McMullen, of the Seventh Day Adventist Mission in Honan, and his wife and child. The fourth person is an American registered nurse. Miss Gertrude Green.

.The United Stales Embassy in Nanking received this report from a Roman Cathoxic priest.

Alleged Error in Murder Charge.— A Japanese captain, Ito Shichuo. told the War Crimes Court at Kuala Lumpyr. to-day that he was being accused SJiiKS wrong beheading Shicbuo admitted beheading a .Chinese three months after the death erf Hoon Choon. J n^ r ? er he charged, but he denied beheading Choon. “The witnesses for the prosecution must have made a mistake,” said Shichuo Singapore, January 8.