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Show Australia, Country of Fighting Men, Faces Greatest Struggle in History I I I ft. Land 'Down Under' . Welcomes Yank Assistance. By CLIFF LANGE (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) Australia, the last practical Allied base for attack against the Japs, is similar to the United States both in size and attitude of its people. It wasn't but a few years ago 1938 that Australia celebrated its 150th anniversary. anniver-sary. But now it is girding and ready for a battle to the death against the foe creeping down from the north, engulfing all territories and peoples before it, like the Biblical deluge. Most of Australia's inhabitants inhabi-tants are of British extraction. extrac-tion. But in spirit the "Aus-sies" "Aus-sies" are just as American as they are British. The welcome given to American troops upon up-on their arrival there, the demand de-mand for General MacArthur to lead the Allied forces in the fighting zone, all clearly show the attitude of the Australians. Austra-lians. Australia's 7.000,000 population is spread over almost 3,000,000 square miles of territory as compared with the United States' total of 133.000,-000 133.000,-000 population in approximately the same amount of space. Australia, like our state of Georgia, Geor-gia, was first settled by English convicts. con-victs. That both groups did a good job is evidenced by today's far-reaching far-reaching developments. Today most Australians live within with-in a narrow 100-mile coastal belt along the south and east. About half of the population Is in the nation's na-tion's half-dozen largest cities. Sydney, Syd-ney, having a million and a quarter inhabitants, is the largest; Melbourne, Mel-bourne, with a little more than a million, is next largest. Both of these cities are practically at the opposite end of the continent from Darwin, which has been bombed repeatedly. re-peatedly. Vital Defense Road. From Darwin to the above mentioned men-tioned metropolitan cities it is little more than 1,500 air-miles. Canberra, Canber-ra, the nation's 15-year-old made-to-order capital, is located about 100 miles southwest of Sydney, on the road to Melbourne. Australia's transportation system now playing a very important part in the nation's defense (and coming com-ing offense) is peculiar in that many of the railway lines extending inland come to an abrupt end. It wasn't until but a few years ago that the railway extending southward from Darwin was connected, con-nected, by a defense highway, with the railroad extending northward from Adelaide to Alice Springs. This road is the artery through which Australia supplies men and materials materi-als to the northern battle scene. With the exception of most of the coastal regions, the greater part of Australia's central territory is flat, arid and semi-arid land which is practically defenseless. More than a third of it is actual desert. It is in the semi-arid zones that the nation's na-tion's vast scattered ranches and large grain producing centers are located. As the huge stretches of land located here are irrigated, this section of Australia will be one of the most fertile zones when the war is ended. As for natural resources, the na- "'" ca ... . . . f-t" cr : (V 'FRF W" SI'JTV 1 j t j CANBCRBVXjjj ' ' - ' ' - B - '' - , ' TASMANiAV' , Map by WNU Sl.ill Artist The above uncompleted railroad line, transversing the center of the Australian continent, (connected In its central part by the Defense highway), high-way), is the important artery of war which win be mentioned quite often in future war dispatches from there. tion has everything needed for war activity except oil. The oil industry is a recent development and not very encouraging insofar as amounts produced. Last year's production totaled only a few hundred barrels. The European war curtailed agricultural agri-cultural and grazing activities, but operated to speed up the nation's expanding factory life. Towards the middle of 1939 there were nearly 27,000 plants employing more than a half million people. Reports since then have not been made public. As gold helped considerably to develop de-velop California, its discovery in Australia helped to open up vast territories there. It was first discovered dis-covered in 1843 and the influx of prospectors raised the population in seven years from around 200.000 to more than 500,000. A story is told about an Australian who crossed the Pacific to take part in the California gold rush. While prospecting in California he noticed that the gold bearing rock and soil of that state had a marked resemblance to territory terri-tory he had seen in his native land. He found his hunch to be correct when he returned there to prospect The Commonwealth of Australia is a self-governing nation, sharing allegiance, along with the other British dominions, to the British king. The Commonwealth is comprised com-prised of six colonies called "Original "Origi-nal States." 'They are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, and the island of Tasmania plus the Northern North-ern Territory and the Canberra Capital Capi-tal Territory. It wasn't until 41 years ago that the six original states united to form a commonwealth. Up to that time there had been many inter-state quarrels some of them going so far as to create trade barriers against each other. Preparing Since '38. The Australian federal government govern-ment is similar to our own in many ways. It has a senate and a house of representatives. In case of a prolonged disagreement with the house, the senate can be dissolved dis-solved and a new one elected. 'The house, too, can be dissolved under certain exceptional circumstances. A governor general representing the king of England is the executive execu-tive head of the government. Since the inception of the Labor party in 1938, the government has been vigorously building up the mu- "T ' ' ' '' - ' ' - ' -. y v.-- .: .;: :;.v,. When Australia raised the age limit for enlistment to 40 years, these men were among the many who answered the call to fight for the motherland. moth-erland. Shown here are veterans of World War 1 who took part in the fierce lighting with the Germans In France. nitions and industries and expanding its land and air forces. In 1938, on down to the present day, the government, gov-ernment, as part of its national defense de-fense policy, has been urging the manufacture of fuel oil and gasoline from its own coal, and the creation of large plants for the manufacture of industrial alcohol. At no time during the Twentieth century has this spunky nation deluded de-luded itself as to what country was" its coming enemy. Trouble, which all Australians saw on the southwest Pacific horizon, had been brewing ever since 1935. In that year the tariff laws which gave a marked preference to Great Britain in the sale of cotton goods in Australia. Japanese markets were practically smashed. As a result the Japs virtually vir-tually boycotted Australian wool in retaliation. Today the Australians are fully aware of how correct they were in their assumptions concerning the over-ambitious Japanese. Today, this scrappy little nation that cov- ' ; - ' tit' . i LA Prime Minister of Australia, John Curtin, who recently clashed with the London government over the selection of Australians who take part in imperial government affairs. ercd itself with glory in World War I, is ready for a repeat performance. perform-ance. The Aussies are determined that their nation shall remain as they have always had it a land of individualists, rugged and aggressivea aggres-sivea land free from the imprint of a tyrant's heel. Still Has a Frontier Spirit. The Yankees, "down under" in Australia, at least 7,000 miles from their native land, will be learning much about the Aussies, and the land they are helping to defend. True, the Yank will have time to absorb but little of the past history of the nation. He will, however, learn all about present-day Australia Austra-lia for the Aussies, in addition to being excellent fighters, are definitely definite-ly proud of their native land without being intensively nationalistic. The Yank will understand the spirit of the country by remembcr-I remembcr-I ing that Australia today outside of i its metropolitan cities has the same "frontier" spirit which lived in the : United States about 50 years ago. I The average American citizen and j the average American soldier associates asso-ciates Australia with kangaroos, early experiments in social legislation, legisla-tion, a national scourge of rabbits, and some remarkably courageous fighting men who covered themselves them-selves with glory battling the Germans Ger-mans during World War I. Then the Yanks will see that the cities are just as modern as those in the United States. The East and West coasts of the United States, where the majority of large cities are located, is somewhat like the east and south coasts of Australia where the most important cities such as Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide. Ade-laide. Brisbane, and Maryborough are situated. They will show the Yanks that despite de-spite their arming to the hilt, they aren't by nature warriors, nor do they have disturbing aspirations to be such saber-rattling people |