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carry only limited supplies of ammunition, and the life of their guns is
limitedand it is improbable that battleships would expend ammunition
firing, at extreme range, into a city and suburban area on the chance of
hitting something. Aircraft can carry out indiscriminate bombardments
more economically and with smaller risk of disaster to the attacker, than
battleships can.
Batteries of 9.2-inch guns have already been installed at points on the
coast near Sydney, and at Fremantle, and guns are to arrive from abroad
for Newcastle in the present financial year.
Danger of bombs.
A few well-aimed bombs could, temporarily at least, complete the
practical isolation of State from State, or district from district. One railway
bridge and the vehicle ferries over the Hawkesbury River are the only
links between Australia north and south of that river, except for the
circuitous railway and road route far to the west. Damage to the inter-
capital railway, at some points, Cootamundra, for example, would have a
similar effect.
The confusion that would be caused in industry by a stoppage of oversea
supplies is one of the subjects that is being investigated as part of the
Federal Ministry's survey, now in progress, of the capacity of industry
to cope with wartime conditions. Industrial scientists point out that the
capacity of factories to switch over to the production of shells, bombs,
and gasmasks is not the only aspect of the problem.
Supplies menaced.
For example, if war broke out, the Army would immediately need big
supplies of tinned foods, and, at the same time, unless the civilian population
was forbidden to use tinned food, the civilian demand for preserved food
would probably increase, through fear of a shortage. But, when the stocks
of tinplate normally carried by the canning factories and the distributors
had been used up, the factories would have to close, because tinplate
is not made in Australia, though we have the necessary iron and tin.
Industrialists point out that the manufacture of this and a multitude of
other key products cannot be improvised at a few weeks' notice, yet whole
industries dealing otherwise with Australian products depend on them.
There is an old rhyme which records how, for want of a horseshoe-
nail the battle was lost. There would be increased demand for shod horses
in war but Australia makes no horseshoe-nails. One firm tried and gave
it up. They require a peculiar steel, which is not easy to make.
Long undefended coastline.
As disturbing as the vulnerability of industry is the isolation of habitable,
wellprovided areas of Australia where an invader might try to establish
advanced bases. For example, the militia forces in Queensland north of
Gympie consist of three battalions of infantry, whose units are scattered
along more than 1000 miles of coast. There is no defended port on this
coast. There are no permanent coast artillery units between Brisbane and
Perth, northabout, except at Darwin.
The Darwin garrison, eventually to amount to about 200, is an isolated
outpost on 6000 miles of otherwise undefended coast. For several of the
wet months of each year the roads to Darwin are impassable. „Who,"
asked a military officer, „would defend the garrison of Darwin from attack
by an enemy force which landed beyond range of the guns and attacked
them from the rear There are foreign bases which are closer to Darwin
than Brisbane and Perth are.
