AUSTRALIAN WAR EFFORT

Southland Times, Issue 24888, 30 October 1942, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN WAR EFFORT

Criticism Regarded As Unjustified

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

(Rec. 8.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, October 29. Australia has become sharply conscious of some American censure of her war effort. The recent article by Hanson Baldwin, military writer of The New York Times, has now been followed by a further attack by Cecil Brown, a Columbia Broadcasting System reporter, in his book “Suez to Singapore.” , , , „ . . “I am convinced that the Australians are resisting an all-out effort to fight the war,” Mr Brown writes. That resistance I believe is due mostly to the absence of leadership and because of a general suspicion of the way the politicians are playing their old games. Mr Baldwin said earlier that Australian Labour’s insistence on its peace time rights had hampered the full development of the United Nations war effort within Australia. Mr Baldwin has never been in Australia. Mr Brown was in Australia in February of this year. ... I regard the small factual evidence which may be adduced to support their cases as a distortion rather than a re-

presentation of truth. With the war in the South Pacific taking a crucial turn many commentators are bent on seeking sacrificial scapegoats—and they do not always find the right ones. Criticism at this juncture of Australia's war effort tending to promote resentment and perhaps distrust is flagrantly unwise, as well as having only the flimsiest factual foundation. Arj incident in which some unloading was done by American servicemen has been magnified out of all proportion. DIVISION OF ARMY

The division of the Australian Army into the volunteer Australian Imperial Force (enlisted for service anywhere in the world) and the militia (conscripted for service within Australian territories) which in no degree is affecting Australia’s power to provide reinforcements wherever they are most needed, is being fermented until it may be swollen to the size of a major political issue. In a population of some 7,000,000 Australia has 1,600,000 persons engaged in war industries or the armed forces. By the end of the present year, according to the Minister of the Army. Mr F. M. Forde, “Australia will have achieved a mobilization of labour as complete as anywhere in the world.” For a country with such a small population to manufacture in increasing quantities all the essentials of war, ships, aeroplanes, guns, tanks and munitions, is a feat of industrial organization vetoing all minor criticism. In proportion to that effort Australia’s labour troubles have been diminishingly small—and minor incidents have been increasingly resented by the great body of Australians. The volunteei' transfer of militia army personnel to the Australian Imperial Force has gone on at such a rate that Australia now has available for service anywhere an army vastly greater than at any previous time. It was a militia unit which generally is admitted to have put up the finest showing against the Japanese in New Guinea. Voluntary service for overseas is a disputed domestic issue for settlement among Australians themselves, but one which in no practical way lessens their ability to send troops to whatever theatre the global strategy of the United Nations may require. PRAISE FROM BRITAIN Timely overseas praise for Australia’s war effort comes from The Evening Standard, London, which declares that recent events have justified the early demands made by the Prime Minister, Mr John Curtin, for a united strategy in the South-west Pacific.” “The Commonwealth’s available man-power is engaged in war production,” says the paper. “This has been done not without controversy, which is part of the character of a young democracy where the politicians prefer knuckledusters to feather-dusters, but also with the vital unity which animates all sections.” Suggestions that Australian politicians have placed limitations on General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander in the South-west Pacific, are ridiculed by all observers here, but it is strongly suggested that a ministerial mission to the United States made preferably by Mr Curtin would clear away many misunderstandings and offer hopes of improved co-ordina-tion of the Allied war effort in the South-west Pacific. PRAISE GENERAL MACARTHUR REPLIES

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

(Rec. 11.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, October 29. A striking tribute to Australia’s war effort was paid today by General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander in the South-west Pacific. He emphatically denied the American charge that political differences are affecting Australia’s fighting power. He declared he had no wish to run for the Presidency of the United States, saying: “I started as a soldier and I shall finish as one.” General MacArthur’s statement reads:

“No nation in the world is making a more supreme war effort than Australia. It is rapidly gearing to full capacity. Its resources are relatively meagre, but it is using them to the utmost. Its effort is universal and embraces equally all classes and all parties. It has unanimously and completely supported me in my military command and the harmony and co-opera-tion between Australians and Americans in this area are inspirational. Such internal party differences as exist are largely based upon the desire of one group or other to accelerate lather than retard the war potential. I am deeply grateful for their magnificent spirit of friendship and understanding, without which it would have been difficult to go on. “I have noted a statement from The Christian Science Monitor’s Washing-

ton correspondent that Washington was largely responsible for the establishment of two separate commands in the Pacific, partly because of the conservative opposition which launched a ‘MacArthur for President’ campaign. I have no political ambitions whatsoever. Any suggestion to the contrary must be regarded as merely an amiable gesture of goodwill dictated by friendship. I started as a soldier and I small finish as one. The only hope and ambition I have in this world is for victory for our cause in the war. If I survive the campaign I shall return to that retirement from which this great struggle called me.” The Sun, Sydney, comments: “Although General MacArthur did not mention Hanson Baldwin by name, his statement is a complete answer to Mr Baldwin’s criticism of this country.” The paper adds, however, that there is a minority “whose conduct is an outrage to their fellow citizens. Miners throw a mine idle because the wheeler’s trousers are stolen. Profiteering and black markets continue in a mean struggle for personal advantage out of the national extremity. Politicians still squabble. It is time every Australian realized this country’s danger, forgot his petty problems and pulled his full weight.”