"ARMED CAMP"

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24271, 12 May 1942, Page 5

"ARMED CAMP"

NORTHERN AUSTRALIA HUNDREDS OF AERODROMES THE AMERICAN "INVASION" NEW YORK, Mar. 20 American front-line troops and air forces have been pouring into Australia for two months, beating back the Japanese invasion vanguard by air and streaming by trainloads to prospective battle stations, states a message to the New York Times from General MacArthur's headquarters in Australia. Since the end of December big convoys, escorted by the United States Navy, have been arriving at frequent intervals at widely-separated Australian ports, disgorging thousands upon thousands of trucks, scout cars and Ameri-can-made equipment of every description. Northern Australia is rapidly becoming an armed camp, with secret air bases dotting the primary defence zone, hundreds of aerodromes under construction, tent camps springing up everywhere, and communications lines stretching across the land. United States Army headquarters have been functioning since early January "somewhere in Australia," while shiploads of American airmen, pilots, technicians, front-line troops and war equipment landed on the shores of the Commonwealth. Members of General Mac Arthur's staff already are moulding their plans at United States Headquarters. The American expeditionary- force already has fanned out over hundreds of square miles of Australia, and its leaders rapidly are co-ordinating its operations with those of the Australian force and remnants of United Nations forces escaped to Australia from overrim territory in the Pacific. Significantly, in several of the largest Australian cities the Americans on the streets outnumber Australian soldiers by three and four to one. High-ranking United Nations officers predict that when the time is ripe for the Australian garrison to loose its counter-offensive, it will be of "staggering" proportions. And there is no doubt that when the Battle of Australia starts in earnest, American forces will have a mammoth share in it.