MOTHER SHIP

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 June 1942, Page 3

MOTHER SHIP

MUST HAVE BEEN NEAR AT HAND SOME PUBLIC EXCITEMENT. FEW DETAILS DISCLOSED. (Special Australian Correspondent.! SYDNEY,. June 1. Only brief and guarded accounts have been published of the probable destruction of three Japanese midget submarines which attempted to attack, shipping at Sydney, but the news of the raid has created considerable excitement here, and its implications are strongly in the public mind. When the news vendors this afternoon first called “Three enemy midget submarines sunk at Sydney,” the public was incredulous, and many people regarded the news boys’ cries as a hoax to sell their papers. The operation is described in the Allied headquarters’ communique as “completely unsuccessful.” Whether a force of submarines greater than the three believed destroyed took part in the raid has not been revealed. Late editions of this afternoon’s papers draw attention to the fact that the midget submarines must have been launched from a mother ship off the coast. The type used in Pearl Harbour attack had a range of only 150 or 200 miles. The general ■public’s early reaction—it can’t happen here—quickly vanished, and is replaced by the satisfaction that the counter-measures against the attackers proved adequate. Japanese attacks along the east coast of Australia, and even on Sydney, have been anticipated. These reports of Japanese submarine activities offeradditional evidence of the enemy’s determination to disrupt shipping transport between the United States and Australia.