AUSTRALIAN DRIVE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20254, 23 May 1940, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN DRIVE

: WAR PROGRAMME £3,000,000 NAVAL DOCK THIRD DIVISION PLAN MUNITIONS SUPPLY CHIEF LARGER NAVAL FORCES (Elec. Tul. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (Reed. May 23, 9 a.m.) CANBERRA, May 22. The Australian Prime Minister, Mr. E. G. Menzies, announced the acceleration of Australia’s war programme in the House of Representatives to-day as follows: (1) The building of a large naval dock at Sydney. (2) The raising of a third division of infantry for service abroad. (3) The appointment of Mr. T. H. Essington Lewis, general manager of the Broken Hill Proprietary, Limited, as director-general of munitions supply. / (4) The formation of a special recruiting organisation. (5) The formation of a trades’ union panel for the settlement of industrial disputes. (6) The speeding up of the Empire air scheme. (7) An increase of 1970 in naval personnel. Mr. Menzies said that Sydney’s new naval dock would make Australia a fit base for a powerful fleet and would, in certain contingencies, enable naval operations to be conducted in Australian waters without the necessity of travelling to Singapore for refit or repair. The dock would cost £3,000,000 and would have a total length of 1050 ft. by 137 ft. wide, and a depth over the keel blocks at high tide of 45ft.