Evening star., 1941-11-02
Australia Completes
Great Military Road
To Meet War Threat
Darwin Is Rouring With
Activity os Country
Prepares for Defense
By GEOFFREY TEBBUTT,

by GEOfFhEI IEbbUI1,
Foreign Correspondent of The Star and
North American Newspaper Alliance.
MELBOURNE, Australia, Oct. 81
(By AirmaiD Australia policy is
to meet the enemy as far as possible
from her own soil. Her troops are
fighting in the Near East and are
ready to fight in the Far East.
At the same time, it is recognized
that, should open warfare with
Japan spill over into the Pacific,
British and imperial strategy in the
area Of which Singapore is the core
must be essentially defensive-unless
the United States Fleet tips the bal
ance against Axis naval power and
compensates for the advantage Ger
many and Italy have gained by
keeping the main weight of the
royal navy pinned to the Atlantic
and the Mediterranean.
Australian land and air forces in
the Far East, under the supreme
command of Air Chief Marshal Sir
Robert Brooke British
commander in chief at Singapore,
have for some time been steadily re-
inforced Sir Robert himself has
been down here on a hurried two
day flight of 5000 miles to talk
strategy and supply with the new
Australian Labor government. In
addition to the United States and
Great Britain, equipment for his
elastic command comes from AUS
tralia's rapidly expanding industry.
Military Road Completed.
Another step that Australia has
taken, In the interests both of home
defense and Of strategy in the
wider sphere to the north, is the
completion of the great north-south
military road through the Northern
Territory, hitherto neglected and
suffering badly from lack Of COM
munications.
The Northern Territory, a still
comparatively unknown area of half
a million square miles, had, in peace
time, white population of little
more than 5000 Darwin, its capi-
tai. had little significance beyond
Its position as the northern back
door Of Australia and as the land
fall for overseas commercial air
services.
Now Darwin is roaring with war
activity. The garrison quartered
there in the tropical climate, with
few amenities, bored and rearing
for action, is one of the worst head
aches from which army headquar-
ters suffers. One proposal afoot
to appease the rampant soldiery is
that each contingent for service
abroad should include 10 per cent
In its numbers of the troops who
have been stationed in the Northern
Territory. Meanwhile. the trend of
events farther north emphasizes the
weight of the reason for maintain
Ing in this, the never-never land. a
strategic reserve which might yet
see action without being shipped so
far away as the Near East.
1t took war to open up COM
munication between Southern Aus
tralia and lone Darwin on a scale
adequate to meet its requirements
in defense. From the railhead at
Alice Springs, in the center of Aus
tralia a gap of $40 miles remained
of the projected line to Birdum and
Darwin. Under the urgencies of
war, this has been completed in the
form of military road through
country which would once have
called for camel teams.
Troops Strung Out.
Lines of communication troops
now are strung out along this road,
hacked through rough cattle pas
turage in a land of distances so
great that single ranches measure
thousands of square miles and a
neighbor so miles away is not reck-
oned to be far of. Describing the
impact of mechanical road-building
on what used to be called the dead
heart" of Australia, Give Turnbull,
In the Melbourne Herald, writes
''1t is not the iron horse that
wakes the silences and sends the
galahs in a swirling pink furry
over the treetops, but the mech
anized transport of the army-men
and material crowding northwards
on the road from the railhead at
Alice Springs, truck after truck, 100
yards apart, in steady convoy
through the places where pros
pectors dice of thirst and linesmen
in the epic laying of the overland
telegraph 10 years ago fell victims
TO the blacks"
Less than 500 miles from the port
OF Darwin lies Dill, in Portuguese
Timor, whose opening to Japanese
air service has lately stirred Aus
tralia to extra watchfulness on her
northern ramparts. But also at
Darwin now lie squadrons of the
Royal Australian Air Force, work.
Ing in iaison with Singapore and
backed from the south by the all
weather supply route created in a