THOUGHT INEVITABLE

Evening Post, Volume C, Issue 40, 17 February 1942, Page 5

THOUGHT INEVITABLE

MOVE ON AUSTRALIA

Canberra, February 16. "The fall of Singapore opens the Battle for Australia. Singapore is our Dunkirk." With these warning words the Prime Minister, Mr. J. Curtin, declared that "everything .we have, everything which belongs to us | must now be mobilised." ! Mr. Curtin said that the Government was now fully convinced that a Japanese attack on Australia Was inevitable. "On the Battle fbr Australia," proceeded Mr. Curtin, "will depend not merely the fate of the Commonwealth, but the frontier of the United States, indeed, all the Americas, and therefore the fate of the English-speaking world. He would be a very dull person who did not accept the fall of Singapore as involving a completely new situation. "The Battle for Australia demands what the Battle bf Britain required. The service arid complete devotion given by Britons in the defence bf their home must be given by Australians for the defence of Australia. HONEYMOON FINISHED. "Our honeymoon is finished. We must work and fight as never before. Every citizen has a parallel duty to that bf the man in the fighting forces. Hours which were previously devoted to sport and leisure must now be given to the duties of war." The full Cabinet is to assemble iri Sydney tomorrow, and will be followed by a meeting of the War Cabinet which is regarded as the most vital in the Commonwealth's history. The Minister of the Army, Mr. F. M. Forde, announced that secret moves which were decided on some weeks ago in the belief that Singapore would not be held—including ..large-scale movements bf troops arid aircraft—are already being carried but. Mr. Forde told interviewers that he had no information as to whether Australian troops had beeri moved from Singapore Island, and also that he had no further news with regard to the Australian troops in New Guinea and Amboina.