AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTION

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 July 1942, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN PRODUCTION

OFFICIAL’S DISCLAIMER

ANGLO-U.S.A. AID URGENT

WASHINGTON, June 30. The Australian Director of Ordnance Production (Mr. L. J. Hartnett) has issued a formal disclaimer of the statements in the New York “Herald Tribune,” which he allegedly gave a very optimistic view of the status of Australian war production. He emphasised that nothing he had said could be interpreted as suggesting any lessening of aid from the United States to Australia. ■ . “The very opposite is the object oi my visit,” he said. “Our needs are urgent—more urgent because the dividend that will come in terms of production from the materials we need will be enormous. I have already started discussions with Washington officials regarding practical means of accelerating and increasing aid for our munitions programme. There is no doubt that we require urgently considerable aid from the United States, England, and other sources to supply our aircraft, etc., which it is beyond our existing capacity to produce. My purpose is to obtain more assistance urgently from the United States in the way of essential equipment for the munitions programme being carried out in Australia. I have found a complete understanding of this objective in Washington, and every indication that greater aid will be forthcoming. We look forward to the day when, with United States aid, our production will reach a stage enabling us to make some contribution to the general Allied pool from weapons and equipment produced in Australia.” In reply to questions at a Press conference, Mr. Hartnett declared that machine tools were Australia's greatest need in munitions production. A small amount of produce would produce a great dividend in results. “Australia needs many things, such as aeroplanes and a wide variety of finished goods. However, we are already able to produce our own requirements in some fields, such as optical munitions, and any surplus of these would be gratefully contributed to the Allied pool.” Mr. Hartnett said one of his duties in Washington would be to contact the new Production Board established by Mr. Donald Nelson and Mr. Oliver Lyttelton. He intimated that Australia wished to be represented on the board, but he declined to comment directly. Another object of his visit was to see that Australian production implemented and complemented the production of other centres, such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. Mr. Hartnett expects to visit Canada. The correspondent of the New York “Herald Tribune,” Mr. Wilfrid Fleisher, who originally reported the remarks of Mr. Hartnett and Mr. W. Wasserman (head of the United States lease-lend mission to Australia) regarding the status of Australian war production, which subsequently created a wave of protests in Australia, repeats to-night in a dispatch from Washington that Mr. Hartnett had told the “Herald Tribune” that Australian production was rising rapidlv and would soon be able to supply the American forces in Australia with most of the needed implements of war. However, Mr. Fleisher gives a lull account of Mr. Hartnett’s statement to-day, in which Mr. Hartnett says Australia still needs great aid from the United States. “Mr. Wasserman told the New York ‘Herald Tribune’ last Friday tha! Australia is making immense efforts to be as self-sufficient as possible, and it will require very little more aid from the United States to put Australia in the position of taking the offensive,” Mr. Fleisher states. He adds, however: “It appeared to-day that Mr. Wasserman intended to convey the idea that very little more aid was needed in certain categories of war materials to put Australia in the position of taking the offensive in certain theatres of war.”

* FACTORIES IN COUNTRY. * CANBERRA, July 1. ' A vast programme for the construc- ? tion of munitions factories in country 1 districts is being carried out through- } out Australia, said the Minister for * Munitions (Mr. Makin). One of ' the factories being built in New South Wales Will be the second largest in “ the Southern Hemisphere. + About 10 factories were being built ] in New South Wales, five in Victoria. 1 and others in South Australia and Western Australia. The largest fac- ! tory would employ about 12,000 hands, and would be in production by - the end of the year. Many of the / plants were approaching completion, s They were not near the coast. The whole programme of decen- - tralisation was highly satisfactory. - and would provide Australian and e Allied troops with a huge and vart ied quantity of munitions and equipr ment. i / LAND RAID IN NEW GUINEA, s JAPANESE_SURPRISED. s (Rec. 9.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, July 1. Allied .land forces have made a s daring night raid on the Japanese garrison at Salamaua, New Guinea, r Sixty Japanese were killed or ’ wounded, and some equipment was j captured. The only casualties among ’ the raiding party were two woundt ed. This is reported in the latest r South-west Pacific communique. ! The raiding party struck in the - darkness, taking the enemy by come plete surprise, and withdrew to the - rough country of the hinterland be- [' fore the garrison could organise to i retaliate effectively. This is the first - land offensive carried out bv the Ale lies in the South-west Pacific since s General MacArthur took command. Though the communique does not specify the date of the attack, it may have taken place on Sunday night. The operation was a harassing raid, undoubtedly designed for the main purpose of securing intelligence and e information. It has not been reveal- - ed whether the raid was made by a Australian or American land forces, t The only Japanese reprisal announcf ed by General Headquarters is that s soon after the raid the enemy sent e over planes to bomb the villages of I Komiatum, two miles south-west of Salamaua, and Mubo. 10 miles to the, ;t south. Apparently the Japanese at- - tacked these villages because they e believed them to be the points from which the Allied raiders operated, s The communique claims that no - damage was done by the bombings, y Early in March, when Japanese forces first occupied Lae and Salais maua. it was reported that Australian e guerrilla troops were frequently in ” contact with the enemy in sorties il across the Francisco River, which runs near Salamaua. Although Sun- >- day night’s operation is the first raid ir to be reported since March, it is clear is that Allied troops of the commando d type have been in New Guinea’s is heavy jungle country for some it weeks. ■

The latest Headquarters communique also reports Allied bombing attacks on Tuesday night, on the wharf and aerodrome at Rabaul, New Britain, and on the aerodrome at Lae. The results at Lae were not observed, but at Rabaul fires were started.

VALUE OF RAID (Recd. 2.5 p.m.) SYDNEY, July 2. The Allied force which raided. Salamaua brought back information which will be of utmost value to our intelligence section, says the Australian Broadcasting Commission s war correspondent. The raid was made by tough determined fighters, trained to the minute in jungle warfare, and anxious to avenge fallen comrades in Malaya, Rabaul and Java. News of the raid spread quickly among the troops at advanced positions in- the north-east area and Port Moresby, and the announcement was cheered by garrisons. ... , Although there is a disposition not to associate the word commando with the raid, this is the closest approach to commando methods yet employed in the South-West Pacific theatre of war. The official view is the incident should be put in perspective and regarded as no more than a nuisance raid. Nevertheless, its value should not be underestimated. It is the first fruits of patient training in ways of warfare of which much more will be seen in the South-West Pacific before the conflict, ends. At Lae and Salamaua, the enemy henceforth will be obliged to remain constantly on the alert. JAP. AIRMAN’S REQUEST SYDNEY, July 2. A Japanese fighter pilot, taken prisoner by the crew of an Allied bomber, asked his captors to kill him. The Allied fliers were marooned on an island in the Coral Sea, when their plane crashed three miles offshore. A Japanese pilot swam ashore, after the crew of the Allied plane had landed. “He was certainly annoyed when he swam ashore,” said an American member of the bomber crew. “He could speak only a few words of English, and asked us to kill him. Later, he calmed down and told us he had fought in Zeros throughout the I’acifice, first in Malaya and then in Java.” The bomber crew came ashore in their collapsible raft. A friendly native took them, together with their Japanese captive, in canoes to the mainland. JAP. WOMEN PILOTS (Recd. 12.15 p.m.) NEW YORK, July 1. Major-General Willis Hale, the new Commander of the United States Army Air Forces in the mid-Pacific, in a speech at Pearl Harbour, revealed that the Japanese are employing womsn pilots in war planes. He asserted that a new chapter in aerial warfare has been opened by the Pacific conflict, and a snowdown had yet to come. It was a hard job against an enemy, not a push-over. The operations in the Midway Island were an excellent example of the complete co-ordination necessary between all forces in the Pacific “The Air Forces will be a controlling factor in the Pacific. The Japanese have real planes manned by real fighters, who are highly trained and skilled. They have introduced new weapons in tne Pacific war. For example, grenades from planes, and also women pilots in war-planes. It is going to rake the best we have to carry on to victory.”

TAXATION POWERS MELBOURNE}, July 1. After hearing argument lasting 5| days, the High Court reserved judgment in the case in which the states of Victoria, Soutn Australia, Queensland, and Western Australia are contesting the validity of the Commonwealth uniform income tax legislation. The judges will consider their judgment during the Winter law vacation, which will last for about the next fortnight. The Chief Justice (Sir John Latham) said one of the fundamental questions was whether the Commonwealth Government had the right to assume all taxation for Australia, and pay the States what it thought proper. HOURS OTLABOUR MELBOURNE, July 1. The president of the Australian Council of Trades Unions (Mr. A. E. Monk) said it would be suggested to the Government that maximum working hours be fixed at 52 a week lor women and 56 for men. Mr. Monk added that it was not possible for people to work 70 hours a week and maintain efficient production. “Any move to reduce the hours of workers in essential industries would not retard the war .effort but would increase production in a long-range plan,” he said. “Trades unionists realise that they will lose everything if the Allies lose the war.” TEA RATION SYDNEY, July 1. The Commonwealth Government has announced an increase of onesixth per cent, in the tea ration per person per week, as from next week. The present tea ration is one ounce per person per week. CANTEEN PROFITS. SYDNEY, June 30. The Australian Middle East canteens had accumulated in Australian banks between £300,000 and £400,000 representing part of the profits from two years’ trading with the A.I.E’. in the Middle East. This was stated in evidence at the Canteens Inquiry, now in progress. The total profit for the period is said to have been £75,000. This was built up from an original grant of £2OOO capital, made when the initial shipment of supplies left Australia with the first convoy in 1940. The drink bill for New South Wales for the year 1941, reached the huge total of £12,834,714, being an increase of £1,350,572 above the 1940 figures. The value of the beer sold was nearly nine million pounds. AUSTRALIANS IN N.Z. "SYDNEY, July L A tourist, who has just returned from New Zealand stated to-day that hundreds of Australians are stranded in New Zealand, owing to lack of shipping facilities to return home. However, few of them are in financial difficulties,' as work is plentiful. He said that carpenters were making from twelve to eighteen pounds a week.