Lae To Have A Direct Radio

Station

THE general manager of Overseas Tele communications Commission (Aus tralia), Mr. J. E. S. Stevens, wrote as follows on August 31:— On page 6, of your August issue, you report that residents of Lae are to protest against a decision to close the Overseas Telecommunications Station there and to provide, in its place, a relay system, under the control of the Administration, and operating through Port Moresby or Rabaul.

The Overseas Telecommunications Com mission, with the full agreement of the Administration, will now establish a Coastal Radio Station at Lae and, in ad dition, will provide from it a direct radio telephone service between Lae and Sydney.

Some little time must necessarily elapse before the new station can be placed in operation, as buildings have to be erected and modern equipment installed. The work will, however, be completed as quickly as possible.

Mr. C. W. (“Chips”) Mansell. Islands representative of Mungo Scott Pty., Ltd., flour-millers, left Sydney at the end of August by air for Papua-New Guinea on an extensive business tour of those Terri tories.