NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 80, 27 November 1912, Page 8

NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA.

WHERE PUBLIC OPINION LEADS

(Received 9.20 a.m.) Sydney, November 27. Mr Pearce, interviewed, said: “1 think public opinion in New Zealand on the matter of Australasian defence is swinging round in onr direction. Though no official proposals have been made forf co-operation in defence, there has been informal correspondence between the Premiers resulting in the visit of General Godley, who conferred withl Colonel Gordon, the Com onwealth Chief of General Staff, regarding plans of mutual support m time of war.” Mr. Pearce added; “That is all that can be said at present, hut I think the time is not distant when Australia and New Zealand will he side by side in defence. It is impossible to foster the national patriotic spirit on a subsidy basis. We see already in the receptions accorded the crews of onr torpedo destroyers how the national spirit is growing in the Commonwealth, and we can form an idea of the strong national feling which will be evoked when an Australian fleet com,os into being, and it is in this direction, 1 think, that public opinion in New Zealand is now tending.”