CHINESE MINERS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 28 July 1942, Page 3

CHINESE MINERS

HELPING AUSTRALIA’S WAR EFFORT Sydney, July 23. In the arid back country of Australia

nuiiuM'us ox wmnese are worKing to ! produce wolfram, urgently needed for ri j hardening the steelc of munitions. They ! are ardently patriotic and fiercely e | anxious to defeat the Japanese; they t , [ work indefatigable. '-j j Manv tried to enlist in the A.I.F. -j j when they arrived in Australia after ’l j being evacuated from Ocean and Nauru ; Islands, where they had been ernp j Ployed by the British Phosphate Comr> mission n They work under n special award f which provides that each man shall s receive daily a half-pound of vegeu tables, a pound of fresh meat, and two n pounds of rice. Their camp is scrupuls ’ ( >usly clean. From their last month's 1 , pay. thev raised £4OO for patriotic purn j noses. They have given up gambling ~ j for the duration- a major sacrifice The wolfram field, wlv'ch has nron j duced 1000 tons since 1915. has been i- taken over by the Department of Sup- . I ply and Development. Most of the -1 1 equipment used has been impressed n from the goldfields, which the Auss trnlian Government is closing because :1 | gold is no longer urgently wanted. - | The foreman in charge of the Chinese y j labourers pa vs high tribute to their ; work. "I have been mining gold. opals and almost every other mineral , for the nnst 20 years.” he savs. “but those fellows can pick out the real i stuff before I can."- -P.A. Special Australian Correspondent.