You Can’T Have
pp. 60-61 · Read in the full issue
Manus!
Australia to America
SOMETHING significant has been said during the month about the great American-built base in the Admiralty Islands (Manus), north of New Guinea mainland.
The Americans, in their prosecution of the Pacific War, created at Lorengau (at the eastern end of the big island of Manus) and on adjoining Negros Island, the biggest air and sea base in the Pacific, south of the Equator.
When the war was over, United States showed little concern about the several smaller bases built in the Solomons, New Hebrides and elsewhere; but they did indicate, at>all times, a readiness to take over the powerful Manus base, if that could be arranged.
The matter has been under discussion for some time. The Australian Socialist Government, taking a completely un realistic view of a delicate situation, has shown reluctance to permit the Ameri cans any sovereign rights in Manus (although Manus actually is part of the Mandated Territory, which Australia herself holds in trust, anyway).
Finally, on September 5, evidently in an electioneering frenzy, the Australian Prime Minister told a Brisbane meeting that his Government was determined to retain control of Manus, because “it might be needed some day as a base in a war not involving America.”
The Australian Minister, Dr. Evatt — notable mostly for his peregrinations across the world, telling various Govern ments how to manage their affairs, while industrial conditions in his own country have been falling into chaos —announced that “the Australian Government would never consent to handing over an inch of territory under its control.”
About the same time, in United States, Senator Warren Magnuson said that United States would ask UNO for sole trusteeship over Manus Island, when the disposition of the League of Nations Mandates in the .Pacific came before that body.
Editorial Note.
THESE Australian Labour Ministers appear to suffer under strange delu sions of grandeur a condition for which medical science has a special name. Their attitude towards the United States is not only stupid—it is fantastic.
The Pacific is surrounded by four con tinents —one overcrowded, two well populated, one empty. The Continent of Asia is overcrowded, almost beyond description. One quarter of the human race is packed into India and Indonesia; another quarter into China. By com parison, all the rich and fertile lands in the Pacific, south of the equator, are empty. The continent of Australia con tains only 11 million people. East Indies lie like a chain of stepping-stones be tween Asia and Australia.
The white communities of the South Pacific have no possible hope of survival unless the United States assumes guardianship of the Pacific. Without American help, what could Australia do against the overwhelming masses of Asia? About as much as Australia did in 1942, when the Japanese avalanche was rolling southwards!
That is no reflection upon Australian courage or military prowess. The point is that, in comparison with the human masses in Asia and in North America, Australia simply doesn’t count. (Continued on Next Page)
Unaided and alone, Australia could no nothing against an attack from the direction of Asia —whether Chinese, or Russian, or Jap, or Indonesian —even if she had a dozen bases like Manus at her command. Britain would help if she could—but every military strategist to-day agrees that Britain’s position in Europe now is “exceedingly vulnerable.”
Then why, in the name of plain commonsense, does Australia not now make common cause with the Ameri cans. who are her friends, and who saved her in 1942, and not only assist America in her wish to control the Manus base, but make available to America any other territory which the American strategists believe is necessary for the effective policing of the Pacific?
The Australian Prime Minister offers the feeble argument that the Manus base might be needed by Australia in some war in which America was not involved. It may be taken as funda mental that the small Australian nation has no chance of survival in any Pacific war in which America is not involved.
She may as well face plain facts.
There is nothing more extraordinary in international affairs to-day than the spectacle of Australia, with a population smaller than London or New York, posing as a Great Power, under the direction of Mr. Chifley and Dr. Evatt, During the past three years, it has opened legations, ministries, commissions, consulates and agencies in nearly every country in the world, at a cost which has been carefully hidden, but which must be colossal. Evidently, it is intended also to maintain a large army, navy and air force. And now it is sug gested that Australia, alone, can run huge bases like Manus.
The whole set-up seems like something out of dreamland. It has a suggestion of paranoia. How much longer will the unfortunate Australian taxpayer, already very heavily burdened, put up with it? —