PACIFIC DEFENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 November 1941, Page 5

PACIFIC DEFENCE

FURTHER REINFORCEMENTS REACH SINGAPORE CONFERENCES IN AUSTRALIA. LONG-RANGE FIGHTERS RECEIVED. LONDON, November 6. Further large reinforcements have arrived in Singapore from Britain. They include airmen, gunners and sappers. General Sir Thomas Blarney, commander of the Australian forces in the Middle East, has arrived in Singapore and will confer with defence chiefs there before going on to Australia.’ It 1 is expected that he will return to the Middle East after a short stay. Mr A. Duff Cooper, Britain's special envoy, is to confer with the members of the Australian War Council on democratic interests in the Pacific. Mr Duff Cooper stated in Canberra that Britain will seek Australia’s approval and consent before taking any action in the Pacific. The Melbourne “Herald” states that Australia is being equipped with Britain’s latest long-range fighter planes, which would be able to deal with troop-carrying planes, bombers, or aircraft launched from aircraft-car-riers. AUSTRALIAN NAVY STATEMENT MISUNDERSTOOD. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) NEW YORK, November 5. A statement he had made about the Australian Navy had apparently been misinterpreted, declared Sir Keith Murdoch, Melbourne, in an interview with the Australian Associated Press. He explained: “Emphasis was put on an implication which was not intended. I said, ‘Our own navy guards our northern coastline,’ and I went on to describe the well-known exploits of the Australian warships in the Mediterranean. It was a very general statement, made to accomplish what is so necessary in America: to let the Americans know that Australia has a very substantial contribution to make to the defence of the Pacific. This was part of a general presentation of the growing Australian war efforts. “I made no reference to a withdrawal of Australian naval units from the Mediterranean, about which I know nothing. Any inferences from my remarks would be accidental. It is of the greatest importance to Australia that her own individual efforts in her own defence and what she can bring to the democratic front in the Pacific should be known in the United States.” HONG KONG BASTION DEFENCES STRENGTHENED. BRITAIN RAISING CHINESE . CONTINGENT. (By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright) NEW YORK, November 5. Parallel strengthening of the British military position in the Far East to offset Japanese reinforcement in IndoChina has been followed by a strengthening of Hong Kong in a way which points to a more important role than was hitherto indicated, says the “New York Times” correspondent, Mr Durdin, writing from Singapore.

A recent decision to recruit a Chinese army contingent in Hong Kong, he says, is regarded' as a significant manifestation of the new importance attached to the colony. The coming months may see Hong Kong increasingly assume the position of a bastion of British power in the Far East and a vital link in the defence chain running all the way from Hawaii to China.