Radio And Defence; What Australia Has Done

Northern Advocate, 27 October 1938, Page 9

Radio And Defence; What Australia Has Done

Replying to criticism x'n Hobart that the Federal Government was “only playing with the job” of adapting wireless communication to the defence needs of Australia, tire Minister of Defence (Mr Thorby) said every effort was being made to make the wireless service as efficient and comprehensive as their value in war-time demanded, reports the “Melbourne Age.”

The criticism was expressed by Mr C. F. Mingay, the general secretary of the Institution of Radio Engineers of Australia, who also asserted that radio operators in the army were given “miserable equipment.” Mr Thorby said that in the single direction of providing new naval wireless stations, the Government was authorising the additional expenditure of more than £250,000, and. in all twenty-five stations were either now being installed, or had been completed, at a cost of approximately £400,000. About a dozen more stations were to be provided in a later programme. All the main civil air routes were strategic lines of communication for the Air Force in war-time and they were being fully equipped with radio stations which, in an emergency, would be taken over by the Air Force. Each station would provide communication and navigation facilities.

The Minister said the No. 1 set used for the training of army signallers fulfilled all that was required of it. It was of War Office design, but many of its components were not now in commercial use in Australia, and its manufacture locally would offer many difficulties. One local manufacturer had submitted a modification of this set, with components that were in current commercial use in Australia, and two cf the type were now under trial. The question of re-equipping the army with more modern wireless equipment had been investigated for some time, and designs had been drawn up for a new type of set, working on a simplified system of control. It was hoped that trials could be made with this type within a few months. New types for use in tanks would arrive from England shortly, and a local pattern for use in armoured cars was undergoing trials. When the designs of the various types were approved, orders with local manufacturers would be placed for a considerable number of sets.

. Mr Thorby added that the naval station at Canberra, work on which had already begun, would be the most powerful naval station in the Empire, and with the new station at Darwin and existing equipment at Garden Island and Flinders Naval Depot, Australia would be in an advanced state of preparedness. Equipment on warships was being constantly modernised, while the latest equipment had. been supplied for the training of reservists, and would be installed in auxiliary vessels in time of emergency.