EARLIER REPORTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 February 1942, Page 3

EARLIER REPORTS

Damage to Service Installations TOTAL MOBILISATION NECESSARY SYDNEY, February 19. The Prime Minister, Mr Curtin, announced that the Japanese dropped a number of bombs on Darwin. The Minister of Air, Mr Drakeford, late this afternoon, issued the following communique: “Japanese bombers raided Darwin this morning for one hour. Preliminary reports in-., dicate that the attack was concentrated on the township. Shipping in the harbour was also bombed. There were some casualties, and damage was done to service installations, the details of which are not yet known.” The Minister of the Army, Mr Forde, said this afternoon that the raid apparently began at about 10 a.m, local time, when the brief radio message was. received: An, air raid on Darwin has started. The station is closing down. The Prime Minister, Mr Curtin, who entered hospital yesterday with an attack of acute gastritis and is still in hospital today but is recovering, sent the following message to the people of Australia: “Australia has now experienced the physical contact of war within Australia. As' head of the Australian Government, all I need say is that total mobilisation is the Government’s policy, and till it is necessary for the machinery to be put into effect,’ all must voluntarily answer the Government’s call for the complete giving of everything to the nation. He appealed to Australians to face the facts, and act accordingly. (The nearest Japanese-occupied point to Darwin is Amboina, the East Indies naval and air base, which is some 600 miles’almost due north—roughly the same distance as from London to Berlin. Darwin’s peace-time population was only a few thousands. 11 is a strategically important naval and air base.)