AUSTRALIA WARNED

Evening Star, Issue 24138, 7 March 1942, Page 7

AUSTRALIA WARNED

ATTACK BY JAPANESE " A MAHER OF WEEKS " SYDNEY, March 6. “ At the risk of being called a scaremonger, 1 declare that an attack is coming very quickly, it is a matter of weks, not of months,” said the former G.O.C. of tho Australian troops in Malava, Major-general Gordon Bennett, in "an interview in Sydney to-day. “ It is our duty to tackle our problems feverishly. We must act like lightning and smash into it.” General Bennett, who is most familiar with Japanese tactics, has given the Australian Government valuable information. He said the enemy was using exactly the same methods in Java as he employed in Malaya. “ These, of course, were taken from their German .piasters, who used them in the war on Holland, Belgium, and Norway,” ho said. “We are bound to assume that the Japanese will employ them in attacking Australia.” General Bennett is soon to receive an important military appointment in Australia. AUSTRALIAN PROCLAMATION MEN UP TO 60 TO REGISTER CANBERRA, March 6. A proclamation issued to-day calls upon all men up to 60 years to register. The former call-ups covered single men and widowers to the age of 45, and married men to 35. To-day’s proclamation brings in men between the ages of 45 and 60. LUXURY BUYING WOMEN OF AUSTRALIA CANBERRA, March 6. Tho orgy of buying by women who throng the city shops to purchase winter furs, expensive frocks and '• other luxuries was condemned by the Federal Prime Minister, Mr J. Curtin, today. “ I put their action in the same category as excessive drinking. Its evil effect on the community is most obvious,” Mr Curtin said. “ It amounts to luxury and selfishness for the favoured few, and is alsb evidence of misbegotten wealth and faulty methods of distribution. Usually women who wear these expensive things are not half as good looking as those who cannot afford them.” Mr Curtin added that he could not imagine how these luxury goods got to Australia. Their production and distribution would be drastically curtailed when the Government’s war organisation of industry plans were in full operation. ILLICIT DEALING " BLACK MARKET " IN EUROPE (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 5. Details of extensive “ black market ” operations in Germany and occupied countries were given by a Ministry of Economic Warfare official. During the last three or four months the death penalty for offences against rationing and price control has been introduced in Germany and Holland, and four persons—three Germans and one Czech —are known to have been executed. Others have been sentenced to long terms of penal servitude with hard labour and heavy fines for illicit dealing in foodstuffs and tampering with ration cards. In Europe, as a whole, “ black market ” operations are even more extensive. The Radio Paris estimates that half the rationed and food in France passes through the ” black market.” Many officials and mayors have been dismissed, but the system flourishes, and is often encouraged for reasons of personal gain by the Germans themselves. In Belgium, the operations have apparently been even more open, as public notices about “ black markets ” have appeared. Over 2,000 sentences were passed in Holland in one recent month. In Italy, illicit dealing in many commodities 'besides food is almost universal. Seven thousand eases were tried in one month and 1,000 in another. DESTRUCTION OF RADIO STATION PRELUDE TO PARIS AHAGK Official Wireless.) RUGBY, March 5. Air experts point out that the parachute raid last week, which culminated in the destruction of the Nazi radio location station at Bruneval, 12 miles north of Le Havre, was obviously part of a care-fully-prepared plan leading up to the R.A.F. bombing attack on Paris arms factories. A problem which faced tho Bomber Command was that no risk should be taken of missing the tarkets when bombs were dropped. Daylight raiding beyond tho range of tighter escorts would be too expensive, and the need therefore was not only for a moonlight night, but also for as little interference as possible from the enemy. Tho radio location station on tho French coast would give tho Nazi fighters time to gain the height necessary for attacking the British bombers, and its removal would give them a chance of reaching the targets unmolested. Tho plan worked perfectly, and bombs were known to have been dropped accurately on the objectives. It is also pointed out here that it is now possible to see the value even of a minor operation such as the raid on Bruneval in the larger war strategy, as it has made a direct contribution to stopping supplies of tanks and other armaments from going to Germany for use against Russia in Hitler’s contemplated spring campaign. BIG DAY IN THE AIR NEARLY 80 GERMAN PLANES DOWN LONDON, March 7. Yesterday the Russian Air Force destroyed 79 German planes in the air or on the ground. Fourteen Soviet planes were lost.