GHOST TOWN

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 March 1942, Page 3

GHOST TOWN

STRIPPED FOR ACTION DARWIN ALMOST CLEARED OF CIVILIANS. EXPECTATION OF TOUGH CAMPAIGN. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association— Copyright) SYDNEY, March 26. “A real ghost town, stripped for action, is Darwin.” This is the view of Mr George Folster, correspondent of the Columbia Broadcasting Corporation, who has just returned from a three weeks’ visit to the Northern Territory. Darwin itself, he says, has been almost evacuated of the civilian population. “It is there that Australian fighting men may soon have to face the task of defending for the first time their own homes and shores. There is no doubt that it will be a hot, tough campaign, but the general opinion is that the ultimate outcome depends on how effectively supplies can be kept flowing to this isolated outpost.”

Mr David Croft, a former docker, who has returned to Sydney, said that Darwin is a town where money has no value. No wages are to be paid. You receive meal tickets for your work, and you are thus able to obtain three meals a day at the Government-con-trolled restaurant. All business has virtually ceased. No shops are open, and all have smashed windows. The hotels are open, but they have no beer.” Mr Croft added that it was possible to buy a car for a few pence, or to take one of the many bicycles that have been left in the town. He made the journey to Alice Springs in a railway cattle truck. Many of the early evacuees from Katherine, miles south of Darwin, had left their houses open when they left, so it was easy to find a bed for the night.

STILL AT LARGE MISSING ENEMY AIRMAN. SHOT DOWN NEAR DARWIN. DARWIN, March 25. Whether the pilot of a Japanese plane shot down near Darwin on March 22 is still at large is a mystery which the military authorities are investigating. The pilot was seen parachuting from his plane, which was found crashed in a swamp, since when nothing has been discovered of its occupant or occupants. A search is being carried out by a land force.