AUSTRALIA'S MANDATE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 151, 29 June 1938, Page 14

AUSTRALIA'S MANDATE

A KEY POSITION

TIME TO FORTIFY

DECLARATION OF RESIDENTS (From "The Post's" Representative.) SYDNEY, June 24. Residents of the Mandated Territory of New Guinea visiting Sydney recent--1: stated, before their departure, that it was imperative to fortify the Mandated Territory as soon as possible. One man who has travelled extensively through New Guinea said that the Commonwealth should take steps at once to obtain relief from the clause in the mandate which prohibited fortifications. "Japan left the League of Nations and has fortified her mandated islands," he said. "Her answer to Germany's demand for colonies is 'Come and get them—if you can!' We should be able to protect our mandate in the same way. If Rabaul was seized and used as a naval or air base it would open up not only Australia, but also New Zealand, * to a foreign aggressor. The people living there are united in their belief that Rabaul must be fortified if Australia is to remain secure from invasion."

Mr. V. B. Pennefather, who has lived j. in New Guinea for 24 years, said: "It j, would be a foolhardy thing to think of j ever relinquishing our possession of the j territory. It would be the key to t the whole Australian coastline for any a foreign Power. Rabaul itself is one j of the finest harbours in the world. It j would be an ideal seaplane base. The £ country itself could be strongly forti- , fied, much as Singapore has been." j YOUNG MAN'S OPPORTUNITY. C Mr. Pennefather advocated a patrol \ service for New Guinea waters. Sloops, * he said, could be allied with a squadron of amphibian planes to form an effective patrol. Many bases needing little improvement could be found , along the coastline of the territory, ; Mr. H. J. Hutchinson, an official of ■ the Lands Department at Rabaul, said that the Mandated Territory offered greater scope for the young man not afraid of work and with a little capital of his own than did Australia. "There are no taxes and no rates," he said "It is a rich land—a veritable paradise. But everything has to be carved out of virgin bush, which means hard work. For the young man with money, the Territory offers unlimited possibilities. The land will grow any tropical product at a minimum cost. We have proved that we can grow coffee and cocoa to the satisfaction of world requirements." The Minister of External Affairs, Mr. Hughes, who recently returned from an official visit to New Guinea, confirmed this impression. He said that he regarded it as a land of great promise. He had been much impressed by its almost unlimited resources, its wide variety of climate, its interesting peoples, and the great possibilities of its future development as an agricultural as well as a mining country. Right through New Guinea and Papua, which he also visited, he found the natives working well, without compulsion. THE MOUNTAIN PLATEAUS. "I had a very pleasant and interesting trip," said Mr. Hughes. "O ne the things that strikes the'visitor to New Guinea is the great variety of th~ native races there. Tribes that are separated, apparently, by only a few miles of distance, are separated by thousands of years of civilisation. Some appear to be living still in the Stone 1 Aee. Different tribes are entirely different in colour and in features; in 1 fact the difference between some oi ' the tribes is as great as the difference ' between the native races and ourselves. 1 They came to greet us m friendly fashion with their headdresses of beads : and feathers,, striking their spears on ' the ground, and all carrying bows and 5 arrows. The tribes have n? common 1 language except pidgin English. 1 Mr Hughes said that it was the 1 plateaus that had stirred his feelings " most There were tremendous agri- " cultural possibilities there. One. left ■' the steamy tropical heat of the sea s level and in 35 minutes was flying ovei - tremendous mountain ranges to beaul tiful valleys and plateaus, 3500 feet , wh with the most delightful climate. - These inland regions should m the 1 future form admirable sites for inland 2 cities, which would be comparable with - the hill stations of India where the i- white population went to obtain relief '< from the heat of the summer.