New Guinea Under War Conditions

Abstract

WITHIN a few weeks of the attack on Malaya, the Japanese armies had secured lodgments far to the' east in the Australian territories of New Guinea and Papua. By the middle of 1942 they had completely swamped New Britain, New Ireland and parts of the Solomons, and had moved forward to the south-east corner of the mainland of New Guinea. By August they were well down the Huon peninsula, and were striking over the very difficult territory of the Owen Stanley Ranges to within thirty miles of Port Moresby. They were at the threshold of Australia and, for us, the fortunes of the war in the Pacific had reached their nadir. The Japanese had almost completely over-run most of the settled areas, the habitable zones, and many of the important ports of Papua and the Mandated Territory of New Guinea, and the island groups of Melanesia. We seemed to be faced with the ruin of many years of colonial effort. The Japanese were then held and decisively defeated by Australian troops in the Kokoda region, and were flung back to the north-east coast. To the south-east at Milne Bay, they were also soundly thrashed in AugustSeptember 1942 in the first clear-cut land victory any Allied force operating against them had had. These truly memorable episodes were some of the turning points in the Pacific campaign. There followed one of the most bitter and exhausting struggles of the war along the coast from Buna, Sanananda and Gona to Salamaua, Lae, Nadzab and Finschhafen. Now (July 1944), after this immense effort by the Australian and United States forces, the campaign in the New Guinea area appears to be over in the strategic sense. The work of rebuilding has already started. The emergency administrative changes which Australia had to make, with great urgency, during the forward move of the Japanese, and when in contact with them, are still generally in force. Any understanding of New Guinea under war conditions makes it necessary to understand what these administrative arrangements are, and how they came about. Papua and the Territory of New Guinea were formerly administered by two separate and independent Australian administrations. Papua has been administered for many years as a sovereign territory of the Commonwealth, and the Territory of New Guinea as a territory under Mandate. The Territory of New Guinea was captured from the Germans by Australian troops in 1915. It was subsequently governed by a military administration, and passed to Australian control as a Mandate under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. Since that time it has been governed by an administration of a fairly orthodox colonial type.