FORTIFYING LORD HOWE ISLAND

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 259, 31 July 1939, Page 8

FORTIFYING LORD HOWE ISLAND

Proposal By English Magazine USE BY AIR FORCE MACHINES The opinion that a properly fortified station for use by aircraft should be erected at Lord Howe Island, is expressed in an article iu a recent issue of the English aviation magazine, “Aeroplane.” Lord Howe. Island, which is about 400 miles from Australia and 700 miles from New Zealand, is legally a part of New South Wales. The article says: "The island would provide an advance base for the flyingboat station which is to be built on the shores of Luke Macquarie. At present nearly £lOO,OOO is being spent on the island for wireless and meteorological equipment, designed primarily for the use of Tasman Empire Airways. It will come in very useful for the service craft in the event of trouble. "An emergency landing area will be provided so that, any Tasman boat which gets lost will have somewhere to go if it. can’t find Australia or New Zealand. Fuel supplies will also be laid down —primarily for the Royal Australian Air Force, because the chance of any being needed by an Empire boat is very remote. It would have to travel, well off its course to use the island. "On the other hand the recent exercises in which the Royal Australian Air Force and the Royal Australian Navy ‘defended’ the coast proved conclusively that aircraft to be successful would have to operate from both sides of the shipping lane. This makes inevitable some sort of base at Lord Howe. The alternatives are seadromes or aircraft carriers, neither of which exists in Australian waters.”