BORNEO NEUTRALISED

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXV, Issue 212, 7 August 1945, Page 5

BORNEO NEUTRALISED

VITAL AUSTRALIAN GAINS

(Rec. 12.15 p.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. 7. The Australian Ninth and Seventh Divisions, although they have occupied only a small area of Borneo’s 300,000 square miles, have completed the neutralisation of the island _ and have seized most of its richest oilfields. The Sydney Morning Herald’s war correspondent says the present military situation in Borneo was described by a spokesman at General MacArtliur’s headquarters as static. Experts are already working on Borneo’s oil wells and refineries, which will eventually save the Allies valuable tanker space by lessening the number of long hauls across the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The Australians have also made the aerodromes ser-viceable at Brunei Bay, Tarakan and Balik Papan, which are being used by aircraft patrolling Malaya, Java, and Celebes. A statement issued by the Army Public Relations Department, Melbourne, says that nearly 2000 Japanese have been’ killed in the Balik Papan campaign. So far 17,000 natives have been released.