LIMITS OF SERVICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 February 1943, Page 2

LIMITS OF SERVICE

FOR AUSTRALIAN MILITIA THOSE OF MACARTHUR’S COMMAND. RELUCTANT ACCEPTANCE BY OPPOSITION. (Special Australian Correspondent.) . SYDNEY, February 5. Extension of the service area of Australia’s militia to the limits of General MacArthur’s South-West Pacific command is accepted by war observers in this country as satisfying the complete practical requirements of the present military situation. Severe home criticism of the Bill by those Australians who consider that the militia should be free to fight anywhere in the world is based on moral and psychological grounds. With a large section of Australia’s soldiers enlisted in the A.I.F. and with no restrictions placed either on their service or on that of the R.A.N. or R.A.A.F. personnel, the Commonwealth is able to send the bulk of its forces wherever the broadest demands of global strategy may dictate. But, judged by the pace of the Allied advance in New Guinea and the Solomons, the South-West Pacific area is likely to absorb fully the attentions of Australia’s fighting men for some time to come. It includes Japan’s key south Pacific base of Rabaul, in New Britain, as well as many other untouched .strongpoints. Australian correspondents overseas, including New Zealand, have reported “some mystification” concerning the Australian plan for extended use of the militia. It is felt by the Commonwealth Government' that stress has been placed overseas on the “restriction” imposed by the Washington-de-cided limits of General MacArthur’s command father than on the “extension” of militia service beyond Australian territory. The fact that the Federal Opposition decided, though “very reluctantly,” not to oppose officially the Militia Bill in its present form, indicates that the Opposition has some, sympathy for the considerations governing the choice of General MacArthur’s full sphere of operations as an area of liability for militia service.