"SCORCHED EARTH"

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24827, 29 January 1942, Page 4

"SCORCHED EARTH"

AUSTRALIANS PREPARE GREAT CATTLE TREK PLAN i (Air Mail) SYDNEY, Jan. 1 , 21. If the occasion ever arises, (dairy farmers on the south coast of ',New South Wales are prepared to t»arry out a " scorched earth" policy (with the thoroughness of the Russian peasants. Already they have planned to evacuate as many as possible of their valuable dairy herds and sftioot what has to be left behind, so that all that would be left to the invad'ers would be the earth and decaying oarThere are 30.000 head of cattle, wqjrth more than £250,000, in the rich pastoral belt extending for 25 miles along the coast between Kiama and Nowna back to the Great Dividing range. Tfofe district supplies about a third of .Sydney's milk. Farmers have already held a meeting to discuss " scorched earth " plaus. "If it comes, it will be one of ■ tW greatest cattle treks in history," declared Mr A. J. Boxsell, manager af the Nowra Co-operative Dairy Comrpany. "From 1700 farms in this district the cattle will converge on try; passes across the mountains to ■ th£ safety of the interior. According tip what we have been told, the order tb shoot whatever cattle remain must he vigorously applied." [ One vital reason for the evacuation of cattle—apart from safeguarding tlae milk supply—is the saving of worldfamous stud stock, from which nejw herds could be built.