The Manus Base

Formal Transfer In Mid-1948

ABOUT the end of June, or early in July, officials from the Australian Department of External Territories, and from the Papua-New Guinea Civil Administration, will proceed to Manus (Admiralty Islands, north of the New Guinea mainland) and there will form ally take over the great base—one of the biggest in the Pacific —constructed by the Americans during the war.

The United States had hoped to re tain control of that base, which would have been the southwestern bastion of the American defence system in the Pacific. But it was in Australian Man dated (or Trusteeship) Territory; and the Socialist gentlemen who now control Aus tralia, and try to strut upon the world’s stage as the representatives of “a Pacific power,” were cold to the American plan.

So the Americans decided to withdraw.

The Australian Navy will establish it self at Lombrum Point, former US naval seaplane base on Manus Island proper, and the RAAF at Momote, on Los Negros Island, where the Americans built fighter strips and bomber airfields cap able of taking the biggest planes.

An American commander and a small group of American officials, who are the only US personnel left out of a wartime population of about 120,000 at Manus, will formally hand over the base.

An administrative post will be re established at Lorengau, in about the same position as it was for 20 years be fore the Jap invasion.

A Canberra press “hand-out” says: “The Australian flag will then be kept flying to show that the Commonwealth has accepted responsibility for the terri tory and the native population. Schools, hospitals and courts of justice will be set up for the natives, who work on gardens and copra plantations.”

This blurb, of course, is the Socialists’ way of answering the criticism that, while the maintenance of the great base would not have embarrassed the United States, it will be a very great strain upon the more slender resources of Australia.

The Socialists are undertaking the task willingly, however, in order to protect and assist the natives.

The Socialists save their faces —and the Australian taxpayer pays!