AUSTRALIA

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 July 1945, Page 6

AUSTRALIA

PtANE eHASH. ■ SYDNEY, July 22. Flying Officer •F. F. Hildreth, of Hastings, New Zealand, was among those killed in the aircraft.accident at Mascot on Thursday night. He was copilot of the Liberator which crashed. More than 2000 people attended the funeral of 11 of the men killed. They were buried at flookwpod war cemetery, in Sydney yesterday. The body of the twelfth victim was recovered yesterday, and his funeral will be held to-morrow,. •- -r .. „ Lieutenant-Colonel Mothes, Nev Zealand liaison officer, and representatives of New Zealand organisations in. Sydney, attended the funeral of the victims yesterday. HOUSING SCHEMES. MELBOURNE, July 21. The absence of organised material supplies, divided land control, and a lack of land subdivided, roaded, and with the necessary facilities, would be governing factors in retarding Australia’s home-building programme, said Mr. James Fletchei, chairman of directors of the I letchei Construction Company, New Zealand. , , , ~ Mr. Fletcher, who has spent the last month surveying Australia s housing schemes, said that unless all Australia’s available material resources were pooled and allotted equitably there would be confusion. Before housing on a major scale could be undertaken in Australia, he said, the programme would need to be placed under one control. Sites should be purchased complete with all services,, roads, drainage, water power, and light. Mr. Fletcher said New Zealand was two years ahead of Australia in her housing programme, because a single authority controlled all State housing. EX-SERVICEMEN’S PREFERENCE. CANBERRA, July 21. Preference to members of the armed forces would operate in retrenchments from Government munitions factories, said the Minister of Munitions (Mr. N. J. O. Makin), announcing a decision of a Cabinet sub-committee. It was decided that the order for dismissals should be: (1) single men and women; (2) married men without families; (3) married men with families; (4) members of the forces and persons judged to be entitled to preference under the Re-establishment Act in accordance with length, locality, and nature of their service. Mr. Makin’s announcement means that the Government has decided that returned soldier preference is supreme over all other preferences, including the “last-to-come, first-to-go” rule of many unions. , Union officials said to-day that the decision of the Cabinet sub-commit-tee might precipitate a trade union revolt. The attitude of officials is that if- a “work-for-all” policy was adopted by the Government there would be no need for soldiers’ preference. ABSENT SOLDIERS’ WIVES BRISBANE, July 22. The suggestion made by Justice Brennan, of Bundaberg, this week, that those men who “played about” with soldiers wives should be publicly whipped, has been supported by Archbishop Duhig, Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane. Archbishop Duhig added that if the woman in any instance was' as much to blame as the man was, then she should be whipped too. “Soldiers’ philandering wives are often as much to blame as their lovers!” The Federal President of the United Council of Ex-Servicemen’s Associations, Mr. A. J. Servin, has suggested that Vigilance Committees of soldiers be formed to investigate these clandestine love affairs of the wives of the soldiers. Mr. Servin said: “Let the soldiers go out and catch and punish these wolves! Let us expose those men who are preying on the soldiers’ wives' The men who betray the wives of the soldiers who are fighting for their country are traitors to the nation!”

STRENGTH OF FORCES (Rec. 12.15 p.m.) CANBERRA, July 23. The effective strength of the Australian forces last month was approximately 600,000, according to the figures issued by the Department of Information. This figure was substantially higher than was forecast in Parliament at the close of last year. The release of Australian prisoners of war in Europe, the actual fatal casualties experienced, and other factors were responsible for this. Last December it was estimated that the effective strength of the Armed Forces in the middle of 1945 would be about 548,000 but the total is not far short of 600,000. SOLDIERS~BREAK GAOL (Recd. 12.15 p.m.) MELBOURNE, July 23. Twenty-two soldiers at the old Geelong Gaol scaled two stone walls to escape from detention. They had earlier cut telephone wires between the sentry box and the alarm system. Four of them, including the alleged ringleader, have been recaptured. Most of the others are believed to have reached Melbourne. When the wires were cut the aimed guard on the cat-walk nt the gaol was unable to raise the alarm. He saw the escapees one after the other climb the 12ft. inner wall with the aid of tins stacked on end as steps. Grabbing several ladders they scrambled over the 15ft high outer wall and dropped into the street where they split up 'into several parties?. The military regulations prevented the guard from using his loaded rifle.