HARD TIMES IN AUSTRALIA

Southland Times, Issue 24820, 12 August 1942, Page 5

HARD TIMES IN AUSTRALIA

MR CURTIN’S WARNING

(Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.)

(Rec. 6.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Aug. 11. “Until Australia comes down to a stark subsistence level the duty of the Government would be to devote to war purposes an ever-increasing amount of the remaining civil resources of the nation, the Prime Minister, Mr John Curtin, told the State Premiers at the Melbourne conference.

“Waste, excess, luxury and even amenities must become less and less if Australia as a nation is to survive,” he declared. The war programme would mean acceptance of various shortages by Australia, a sugar shortage and possibly a coal shortage. This would, be caused primarily by transport difficulties. Australia would have to use for war purposes its internal lines of communication in order to compensate for the increased lack of shipping. All the portents were that Australia was engaged in a life and death struggle for survival. This was true for every United Nation. Each United Nation had to share the perils of war and the resources available to meet the foe. Any adjustments to the original plans must be accepted without whining. • The Premiers conferred in camera with General Sir Thomas Blarney, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Land Forces, and chiefs of the Australian fighting services. HOTEL HOURS REDUCED

The Premiers’ Conference has decided to reduce by at least one hour a day hotel trading hours in the capital cities and in such other towns as the States decide. Mr Curtin announced that the Commonwealth will give the States the necessary authority for the imposition

of drastic penalties on hotelkeepers who serve inebriated servicemen with liquor, also to ban women from public bars. The Prime Minister added that the proposal by the Commonwealth that drinking, in parks and public places should be made unlawful had been agreed to by the State Premiers. _ A recommendation that mixed drinking in hotel lounges should be prohibited was not adopted by the conference. Australia is spending more than £1,600,000 a day on the war, announces the Commonwealth Treasury. At the present rate Australia will spend £376,000,000 on the war this year, as compared with £319,000,000 last year. Next year the expenditure will be more than £400,000,000.

LAG IN SUPPLIES FOR AUSTRALIA TEMPORARY

(Special Australian Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.)

(Rec. 11.45 p.m.) SYDNEY, August 11. Some war supplies diverted from Australia have already been replaced, the Government spokesman declared today. Australia’s loss from the lag was only temporary and she is now receiving those supplies agreed on between the United Nations when the Minister of External Affairs, Dr H. V. Evatt, was abroad. The supplies included valuable raw materials as well as planes, tanks and other finished weapons of war. “Australia is stronger at this moment than ever before in her history,” said the spokesman. Criticism of the war supply position may result in another Federal Minister making a munitions tour abroad. The Minister of Supply, Mr J. A. Beasley, has been mentioned. Commenting on the utterances by the Deputy Leader of the Federal Opposition, Mr W. M. Hughes, which resulted in the revelations about restricted American aid, The Sydney Morning Herald in a leading article today said: “He has told the Japanese nothing they did not know. On the other hand he did his utmost to check their further progress by awakening Australia to a sense of its peril arising from the enemy approach on Port Moresby. In this he has succeeded, and tire nation will thank him for his candour. There has been, as Mr Hughes contends, too much secrecy of an unnecessary kind regarding the conduct of war operations on this side of the Pacific.”

AUSTRALIAN DEBT TO BRITAIN AND U.S.

MELBOURNE, August 10.

Dr H. V. Evatt, Australian Minister of External Affairs, who recently returned from America and Britain, spoke tonight of “the misleading and mischievous statements concerning strategy and supplies.” He said that one crushing answer to the critics who suggested that the strategic importance of the Pacific theatre of war was insufficiently appreciated was the offensive now developing in the Solomons. It was impossible to discuss publicly details of strategy, tactics and supply allocations. The War Council had been fully consulted on all important questions. In what had been agreed upon Mr Churchill and President Roosevelt had shown full recognition of Australia’s strategic importance. Except for temporary suspensions as a result of the war’s over-riding necessities all those arrangements had been fully met.

“Our debt to both countries is very great,” he said. “Having regard to the serious position in other theatres of war it is utter folly to suggest that the Pacific is not regarded by the British and the United States leaders as of crucial importance.”