Biting Press Comments On

Manus Base

THE Australian Minister for the Navy announced on February 8 that an advance party from the Royal Aus tralian Navy had arrived at Manus Naval Base to prepare for the arrival of “the main party of RAN personnel and equip ment.” He said Manus would replace the present Australian Naval Base at Dreger, on the New Guinea coast, about 275 miles southwest of Manus.

Elsewhere in this issue an article de scribes the vast base built at Manus by the Americans and the manner in which it was abandoned by the Americans when Australia refused to co-operate with the United States in the proper maintenance of this powerful bastion of South Pacific defence. (See page 26.) In a biting article on February 9, the Sydney “Daily Telegraph” commented upon the stupidity of the Australian Socialist Government in refusing to co operate with the Americans and said: “If we had had any capacity for put ting first things first, the Australian Gov ernment would not now face the huge expenditure required to re-equip Manus.

“The Americans would be doing the job for us. This would not only have saved us money: it would also have as sured that American help was close at hand in any crisis.

“But we were touchy about our sover eign rights, and refused to come to terms with the US. So now we have the job ahead of us.

“More importantly, we lost an oppor tunity to lay the basis for intimate co operation with the United States in the planning of defences for the South-west Pacific area.”