AUSTERITY LIVING

Evening Star, Issue 24292, 5 September 1942, Page 5

AUSTERITY LIVING

MR CURTIN'S APPEAL TO AUSTRALIANS CANBERRA, September 3. An appeal to the people of Australia to adopt a more austere way of living to aid the war effort was made by Mr Curtin in a national broadcast tonight. He requested the State Governments to restrict the number of racing, greyhound coursing, and trotting meetings, and asked the Press and radio stations to restrict their treatment of sporting news and social news to the bare essentials and eliminate non-war activities. He urged the limitation to three courses of meals served in hotels, cafes, and public eating-places. He announced that a Bill would be introduced to deal with black markets, and said stiffen penalties, with a severe minimum, would be imposed for breaches of the price regulations. Mr Curtain said the austerity campaign which be was inaugurating in that broadcast had three main objectives: First, to bring the people to the realisation that only by an austere way of living could we muster our national strength to the pitch required for victory’; secondly, to ensure the success of the £100,000,000 loan subscriptions to loan to be received immediately j although the loan would not be officially launched till November; thirdly, absenteeism, slackness, carelessness, and inefficiency, which are cankers eating into the efforts of the working forces, must be abolished. “ If the disproportionate expenditure on drink is not altered by the powers recently given, the States Governments would introduce further measures to see that the policy was carried out," Mr Curtin said- “The people must accustom themselves to a greater cut in the normal standard of living. A cut of at least one-third must be applied immediately, and more might be asked at a later stage. The people must cease buying non-essential goods." For the sake of the people themselves, for their children, and for posterity he enjoined his listeners to live in austerity. THE BELGIAN CONGO DEVELOPING THE RUBBER INDUSTRY (British Official Wireless.) (Eec. 10.10 a.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 4. The importance of the Belgian Congo and its recent progress were described by the Belgian Prime Minister (M. Pierlot), who has just returned to London from Central Africa. His country, he said, had conceived the defence of its colonial empire in solidarity with its British allies and with Fighting France and America, the first detachments of whose troops had just reached the Congo. M. Pierlot outlined the rapid progress made there industrially, adding that great efforts were now being made to develop rubber plantations and at the same time extend rubber gathering in the forests, m FRASER IN AMERICA ADDRESS TO NATIONAL PRESS CLUB HIGH PRAISE FOR U.B. TROOPS WASHINGTON, September 3. " Before the war ends there will be second, third, fourth, and fifth fronts, all victorious,” said the New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr P. Fraser, in a speech at the National Press Club. He added that ' the Americans had every reason to bo proud of their troops in the South-west Pacific. They had created a great impression in New Zealand by their physique, spirit, and behaviour. They were true comrades of the New Zealand men, and together 1 they would stem the Japanese hordes. Mr Fraser further said that the Axis had for a long time prepared for war. He quoted as an example Japan’s readiness in munitions and transport, even drugs, for the occupation of Malaya, but the democracies meanwhile were building for peace and social betterment, and were only now becoming ‘ prepared. Mr Fraser paid a high tribute to General Chiang Kai-shek. “If China had yielded," he said, "the Japanese probably would now be swarming over New Zealand.” He added that New Zealand and Australia had never faltered in the greatest danger, because they knew that the democracies were building ever stronger forces, and now, being well on the road, “ their burns higher than before." Introducing Mr Fraser, Brigadiergeneral P. J. Hurley jokingly said that Now Zealanders were difficult to distinguish from Americans, except for a slight difference in accent and the way they made coffee. ATTITUDE OF CHILE BREAK WITH AXIS FORESHADOWED NEW YORK, September 3. _ According to a reliable Latin American diplomatic source, it is absolutely certain that Chile will break off diplomatic relations with the Axis after the return of President Rios from the United States. ■This statement is made by the Rio de Janeiro correspondent of the United Press of America, who soys that President Rios first desired to obtain certain fundamental guarantees from the United States and an understanding with the Latin-American Governments. " The effect upon Chile of Brazil’s entry into the war cannot be overemphasised,” the correspondent adds. GOVERNOR OF HONGKONG INTERCESSION OF CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES (British Wireless.) (Rec. 10.50 a.m.) . Sept, 4. According to the Catholic newspaper. ‘ Tablet,’ special efforts have been made on behalf of Sir Mark Young, the Governor of Hongkong, at the Vatican at the instance of Roman Catholic missionaries in Tanganyika, to whom he had shown himself so warm a friend. The Japanese envoy to the Holy See replied that, while Japan could not accept the gratitude of the Catholic missionaries as a valid reason for repatriation. it took note of the interest shown, and he would bo treated with all consideration due to his high rank.