NOTES AND COMMENTS

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 35, 5 November 1942, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS

By the capture of Kokoda the Australian forces in New Guinea have achieved an objective on which they have concentrated for the past five weeks. This success has meant a gruelling jungle trek, together with sporadic fighting, over the Owen Stanley Ranges—-the recapture of territory lost when the Japanese launched their "infiltration offensive” against the comparatively weak screen of defenders, poorly supported from the air, who had pushed inland and upland from Port Moresby. It is an important local success, for it means not only that the earlier enemy threat to Port Moresby, by land attack, has evaporated, but also that the Australians are, in their turn, poised above the Japanese base of Buna on the northeastern Papuan coast. The enemy’s anxiety concerning his foothold there is betrayed by his abortive attempt, to land reinforcements, estimated to number 7000 men. A feature of the present campaign to date has been the half-heartedness of Japanese resistance, which has seldom amounted to more than brisk skirmishing. In the light of the eleventh-hour effort to strengthen Buna, this is somewhat puzzling; indeed the Japanese strategy as it applies to New Guinea as a whole appears curiously inconsistent. The events of the next week or two should enable it to be seen more plainly as either an expedient retreat in the face of superior fdree, or :i planned withdrawal from the mountain regions in order to serve .some ulterior purpose. Encouraging though it undoubtedly is, the advance ii. New Guinea should be studied with caution until the situation clarifies.

The decision to increase the pay, and make certain adjustment to tm allowances, of women in non-commissioned ranks of the Auxiliary Services is a commendable one. The basic rates of pay for these volunteers have been markedly low by comparison with the inducements offered in industry and other spheres of civil life: furthermore, the deductions made for “living in," together with the very moderate allowance for “living out” have caused the personal budgetary problems of young women who have endeavoured to live, indejiendently to be constantly difficult. The increases in pay. and even more particularly the allowance adjustments, should do much to remedy this, and should also have a correspondingly good effect on recruitment. for the Auxiliaries. In the matter of allowances, the authorities might, well Investigate further and compare the newly-instituted Auxiliaries’ rates with those for the Services themselves. From time to time complaint has been made that Army allowances of an equivnlent kind aro disproportionately fixed, in such a way that, officers and men living in barracks enjoy a distinct financial advantage over those who provide themselves with meals and lodgings. 'The increase, in the case of the Auxiliaries, of sixpence a day on the subsistence allowances of 2/6, implies a recognition of an advance in living costs which confronts servicemen as well as service women.