MILITIA SERVICE
AUSTRALIAN TROOPS LIMITATION OF ZONE MR. CURTIN’S DEFENCE (10.30 a.m.) CANBERRA, Feb. 4. “I consider it a fallacy to suggest that small nations like Australia, confronted with the problem of defending a large continent with a small popu lotion, should be expected when facea with a life-and-death struggle in their own .region, to send forces to other theatres.’’
This statement was made by the Prime Minister, Mr. J. Curtin, when he moved the second reading of the Defence Bill which defines the area in which Australian militia forces may serve, in the House of Representatives last night. Replying to criticism that the zone of service excluded Malaya, Mr Curtin said the Australian forces were assigned to General MacArthur who was conducting the campaign in the south-west Pacific area while General Sir Archibald Wavell was running the campaign in another area which embraced Malaya.
Mr. Curtin said that originally it was the desire of both the Australian and New Zealand Governments that their countries should be in one strategic zone, but New Zealand and other islands to the east of Australia were included in the South Pacific area.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GISH19430204.2.36
Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21009, 4 February 1943, Page 3
Word Count
189MILITIA SERVICE Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21009, 4 February 1943, Page 3
Using This Item
The Gisborne Herald Company is the copyright owner for the Gisborne Herald. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Gisborne Herald Company. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in