IF INVASION COMES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIII, Issue 56, 7 March 1942, Page 8

IF INVASION COMES

AUSTRALIANS READY

(Rec. 2 p.m.) SYDNEY, This Day. The destruction of motor-cars, lorries, motor-cycles, and bicycles will be carried out by "civilians if Australia is invaded, the military authorities announced. The destruction of bridges, roads, and factories in threatened areas would be carried out by the Army. The Army and State authorities have completed plans to put a scorched earth policy into swift effect. The plan safeguards against unnecessary or premature destruction of property.

The State authorities will be advised by the Army when any area is in danger, and instructions will then be issued to the civil population to destroy all transport and . foodstuffs likely to bq of use to the enemy. Tea supplies to the public will be cut by one-third on the present amounts, the Customs Minister, Senator R. V. Keane, announced. The importation and distribution of tea will be directed by a tea controller, assisted by a committee of trade and Government nominees. " The response by aliens to the opportunity, of voluntarily joining the fighting Services has been disappointing, said the .Army Minister,. Mr. F. M. Forde. The compulsory provisions of the regulations would" therefore be applied immediately. Mr. Forde said that the first unit of the Army Labour Corps had been formed, and the* first batch of refugee alien volunteers had been ordered to report for service.