Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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f 1 ' ? * 1. NINETY jPERCENT of Australia's seven million people live in a fertile strip along the southeastern coast. Here lie large cities like Sydney (above) and Melbourne. SIX THOUSAND MILES due southwest of Los Angeles?and only 400 miles from the embattled East Indies?lies a little-known continent, which is probably more like the United States than any other part of the world. This continent, Australia, is almost exactly the size and shape of the continental U. S. Its climate, like ours, is varied; its land, like ours, part fertile, part desert. Too, like the U. S., Australia was once a colony of Great Britain, then won democratic self-government and developed along independent lines, relying on ocean frontiers to protect her from possible enemies. But unlike the U. S., Australia does not yet have a sufficiently large population to make and to man the machines needed for defense against a powerful and determined enemy, and she has already learned that her oceans no longer protect her. lDr?TM 1 ' APfcRTM V/\ n / TOKIO X V v>- / 49KMIU4S : bri$6ANS ^ ^ We== 50percojt or BiS-i " ? y,:' ' 1 'jrrfT*1 = POPULATION * I AST CIIANCE Americans had to acquaint! themselves with Australia was ?? 1M1. when part f U S Navy received enthusiastic welcome thcrt^ 3. VISITOKS found a country much like the I). with sheep and cattle stations (ranches) like the 1 West's. Australia Is world's largest wool exporter. I 4. THEY FOUND (hat Australia's wealth, like ours, is based on agriculture and nat ural resources. Though half desert, with no water available for irrigation, Australia has vast farms and grain fields which make her one of world's main wheat producers. 5. BUT FARMING is so mechanized that few people are needed, and most of population lives in cities and towns. People are as sports-loving as are Americans. 6. IN KECENT YEARS, Australia has also built J up an industry, manufacturing1 metal and steel fl products, machines, ships and raUw^ay equipment^ AUSTRALIA'S chief importance to the United States i> and the United Nations today is that it offers them their best?and almost last?Southwest Pacific base from .which an offensive against Japan can be launched. Moreover Australia, though not so well developed as the U. S., has large, productive deposits of copper, iron, lead and other minerals which would be useful to the Japanese war machine. Unlike the rubber and oil of the Dutch East Indies, Australia's minerals cannot be burned to prevent their capture; so if Japan gets Australia, she gets Australia's resources. The United Nations, therefore, can hardly let Australia fall to the Japanese. The Anzacs' courage and fighting ability has been demonstrated on a dozen battlefields in two wars; and they will defend Australia to the last foot. But reinforcements, arms and equipment?mostly from the U. S.?are needed to join with Australia's 550,000 trained soldiers and militia, her small, tough navy, her half-equipped, but courageous air force. Australia, in short, is likely to become the United States' first full-fledged land front in World War II?a front which, if held, can be used as a continental spring-board to victory in the Soi^th Pacific. n 1111 Illinium I TO AIO in her own defense, Australia has an army of 400,000 men at home, 150,000 overseas (total: 8 per cent of population). NORTHERN Australia, nearest Japan, is tropica!, isolated and difficult to dpf?nHi but an important base for counter-attack. AUSTRALIA jMd?M MM fcffcw (above) and hat MM D. & >flM? but ait aoafh for her ! * ## pilots and crawmaa. AUSTRALIA'S mala defnut prtblana in Ms vast i and empty Interior, wwll el railways ial read*. Bat any fare* the a S. mlffct send weald ini # v . math done to pripui the country, from the creation of now war tndostriee to the baUding of now, milltar* m* ***** the continent to Darwin. - . ?? j v-^ ' - ? NAVAL STATIONS Include Dar- I win, in the North, Fremantle, In the West, and Sydney. Navy has sev- H eral cruisers, many smaller ships. | *