TRANSPORTS & ESCORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 January 1940, Page 7

TRANSPORTS & ESCORT

SOME OF THE FINEST SHIPS AFLOAT i OBSERVATIONS BY MINISTER OF EDUCATION. NEW ZEALAND ACTING IN COMMON CAUSE. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. It seemed just a few days since the question of transport and convoy of New Zealand troops had been discussed with the War Office and the Admiralty. said the Minister of Education and Health. Mr Fraser, speaking at the State luncheon yesterday. At these discussions it was recognised that the transport which was good enough 25 years ago was not up to the standard of modern requirements the War Office had fully entered into that conception. s - As a result they saw today some of e the finest ships afloat available for 11 the transport of troops. At a rough 8 estimate there was 124.500 tons ot e shipping now available for the pur--8 pose of conveying and protecting the men of the first echelon. ) As it was but six weeks since these matters had been discussed it said a - great deal for the organisation of the '■ British Commonwealth generally and •i the Admiralty and Ministry of Ship- >’ ping in particular that in ..this period ships were readily available. It was the first time a ship of the Ramillies type had visited New Zealand. The occasion was also notable for the fact that there were ships of the P. and O. Line, Orient Line, C.P.R. Line. New Zealand Shipping Company and British India Company in port. It was wonderful that these ships should 1 be at the command of the Governments ■ of the British Commonwealth and here I at the service of the New Zealand Gov- ■ ernment. It was a great indication of the strength and solidarity of the Em1 pire. That one of the battleships of ■ the Royal Navy was here showed that 3 the British Government appreciated the necessity of protecting the New 2 Zealand soldiers. 3 It showed also that if trouble ever ■ threatened New Zealand or Australia , —there was no sign of that at the , 1 present —such ships would come to , > their assistance with the same speed | as the Ramillies. It was an indication , L that the people of both countries could look to the British Government to send out sufficient naval strength to protect them. With all the modesty ' for which New Zealanders were ’ noted, he did not underestimate the strength of the ships of the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy; the Germans did not underestimate this strength either. Maor-General Freyberg had ’ been welcomed spontaneously and sincerely in New Zealand, and there was not a discordant note as to his suitability I to take command. Major-General ( Freyberg had the confidence of all 1 ; New Zealanders, and of those in con- s ■ trol of the British Army. , < All must surely have felt who saw < the parade of the‘previous day that < it was a tremendous world tragedy > which would exposes such young I men to death and wounds, but they i knew that such an event was precipi- ’. tated by those who had no regard to I human lives so long as their own < domination was maintained and ex- I tended. This challenge had been made ' over a number of years, and now the ( British Empire and France had taken ( it up in the name of civilisation. 4 The voice of New Zealand had been raised consistently in the League of I Nations councils, against aggression, ( and now the country was acting, in the r common cause, on the precepts which ( it had advocated for years, concluded 1 Mr Fraser. 1 — t