THREAT TO MORESBY

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 263, 5 August 1942, Page 5

THREAT TO MORESBY

Substantial Garrison Now; , Ready TERRAIN OF PAPUA (By Telegraph.—Press Assn. —Copyright.) (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, July 30. The renewed Japanese activity in the New Guinea area has disturbed the armchair strategists from consideration of the more pressing war problems in Russia, andi China to renewed, occupation. with the war oa the south-west Pacific front. Is the Japanese landing at Buna a first move in an. all-cut effort to take Port Moresby? Could the enemy have captured Port Moresby earlier in the war, if this Allied fortress was really vital to him? Can the Japanese cross the Owen Stanley Range and make a J.and offensive against Port Moresby? These are some of the questions that have been exercising the minds of Australians this week. The words “grim warning” and “misplaced, optimism” have again taken up their over-worked , duty. Many see in Japan’s latest land, move, coupled with the air raids on Darwin and Townsville, a declaration of her intention to make an eventual direct assault on the Australian mainlarfd. Others accept the move as just another part of an unswerving Japanese purpose to occupy the entire chain of islands screening Australia’s east coast, thus complicating the difficulties of passage of the lease-lend supplies • from the United States. But,, whatever the purpose of the newest Japanese move, her first major effort must be removal of the flanking menace of "Port Moresby. With the recent announcement that American troops had taken up positions alongside the Australians in the area, it is known that substantial forces are available to meet any Japanese attack. The “Mice of Moresby,” Pacific equivalent to the “Rats of Tobruk,” will be quite a Tartar for catching by the rapacious Japanese cat. Track Across Papua. The names of features in this area are certain to figure increasingly in the news. Buna is a small Government station with a residency and two trade stores.

It is the northern terminus of a track leading over the inland ranges to Port Moresby. For the first 60 miles the track is fairly easy over level country. Kokoda is the first settlement reached, 60 miles away, the only natural obstacles being the wide rapidflowing Kumusi River, which is crossed by a wire suspension bridge (easily destroyed), and a perpendicular hill some 800 feet high just beyond the river. This region, the Sangara district, is thickly populated and the natives have been friendly and loyal to the whites. The track from Buna to Kokoda is impassable by vehicles after the first 26 miles. From Kokoda, immediately on the northern side of the Owen Stanley Range, to Port Moresby is a most difficult foot journey of another 60 miles. Great gorges, high mountains, and dense jungle make travel via the 7000-foot pass, known as Hell’s Gap, most difficult. Gona is about eight miles north along the coast from Buna, fit has a hospital and mission station in charge of a New South Wales Anglican minister, the Rev. James Benson. The secretary of the Australian Anglican Board of Missions, the Rev. M. A. Warren, says: “I am sure Benson is still there. He would remain at the mission, Japanese or no Japanese.” Normally two Australian women are at Gona as hospital nurses, but it is believed they have moved inland to Sangara. “Strange, Gloomy Land.” Ambasi, near Gona, is a mission station in the charge of native missionaries. Biggest of the mission stations jn northern Papua is Mamba, in the charge of the Ven. Archdeacon Romney Maurice Gill. The Mombere River, as well as the Kumusi River, flows through the territory. It begins as a turbulent stream high in the ranges and broadens to a navigable waterway, 300 yards wide at its mouth. Light craft can travel as far as loma, a small Government station, centre for a goldfield and newer rubber plantations. Port Moresby itself, cornerstone of the defences flanking Australia’s east coast, is described as "not tropically dank, but droughtily dry at this time of year.” The jungle stops several miles from the coast and the town lies at the foot of bare hills. The harbour is a fine one. Beyond the port hills rises the Owen Stanley Range, with clouds perpetually covering the lofty peaks of this “roof of Papua.” Papua itself is written of as . a strange, gloomy, equatorial land, rainsoaked, with mountains which sneer at settlers and defy the builders of roads.”