THE PRIME MINISTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 September 1941, Page 5

THE PRIME MINISTER

THANKED FOR SERVICES OVERSEAS RECEPTION IN WELLINGTON. NEW ZEALAND FORCES PRAISED. (Bv Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The capital city welcomed Mr Fraser home from his trip abroad not only as Prime Minister but also as a Wellington citizen and the representative of a city constituency at a civic reception tendered him in the Town Hall last night. The Mayor, Mr T. C. A. Hislop, presided. In his address, Mr Fraser, who was received with prolonged applause, dealt with aspects of his mission, and in particular of his visits to New Zealand men serving overseas, and with the Pacific situation. Those on the platform included: — Mrs Fraser; the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash, and Mrs Nash; the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Holland; Mr Coates, M.P., and Mr Hamilton, M.P.. members of the War Cabinet; the Chief of the Naval Staff, Commodore W. E. Parry, the Chief of the General Staff, Major-General E. Puttick; the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Commodore H. W. L. Saunders; the High Commissioner for the United Kingdom. Sir Harry Batterbee; the High Commissioner for Canada, Dr.. W. A. Riddell; the following members of Cabinet. Messrs Mason, Semple, Parry, Jones. Webb, Paikea, Nordmeyer, Sullivan. Armstrong, and Barclay; city councillors and representative citizens. MR NASH’S TRIBUTE. Welcoming Mr Fraser on behalf of the Government and people. Mr Nash briefly reviewed his leader’s work since the outbreak of the war and his first visit to Britain and said he had been a tower of strength to his colleagues. The outstanding events of Mr Fraser's latest trip were outlined by Mr Nash. These included his 'part in getting 1500 more New Zealanders away from Crete and consultations with the British War Cabinet and the Imperial Defence Committee, followed by his conferences with President Roosevelt and other American leaders. “We welcome Mr Fraser back as our great leader,” said Mr Nash. “He stands out as one of the great men of this country. ... I thank him for making the trip and for what he did for our boys in the Middle East.”

OPPOSITION APPRECIATION. “When Mr Fraser left he carried the goodwill, not only of the Government Party and the Parliamentary Opposition. but of every party in the land,” said Mr Holland. “No man could have carried greater responsibilities, and all were confident that he would represent the country and all the people with dignity and distinction. Now that he has returned to us, we have no cause to be disappointed. I want to say a very genuine ‘Thank you’ to our Prime Minister for his very great services on his tours through other lands. “Before his departure I made a bargain with Mr Fraser about political activity in his absence. lam happy to be' able to say that that bargain has been faithfully observed. I think I can say that politically we have been very restrained. “We are grateful for the service Mr Fraser has rendered not only to New Zealand but to the British Empire. Come what may in future politics in New Zealand, the people of the Dominion will forever be grateful to Peter Fraser for the service he has given to his country He has carried immense responsibility with credit to himself and satisfaction to New Zealand.” Mr Holland also referred ‘to the quiet courage with which Mrs Fraser had borne her natural anxiety while her husband was away. MR FRASER’S REPLY. When he rose to reply Mr Fraser was received with prolonged applause. He thanked Mr Hislop, Mr Nash and Mr Holland for their welcome home, and those who had carried on in his absence in the important work of government, and particularly Mr Nash as Acting-Prime Minister, members of Cabinet and Opposition and Government Members of Parliament. Telling of his visit to the New Zealand soldiers in the Middle East, Mr Fraser said he did not hear from a wounded soldier or a fit soldier a single complaint. In a message received on Sunday General Sir Archibald Wavell, former Commander-in-Chief in the Middle East, said there never was a division that showed better discipline than the New Zealanders showed and that, Mr Fraser said, could not have been a discipline forced on them. It was an intelligent self-imposed discipline, with splendid co-operation between officers and men. Our troops were not only not excelled in Greece and Crete but also they were not excelled in the history of military operations. The Prime Minister said we could say that no other Dominion had excelled New Zealand either in the promptitude with which it stepped into the war effort or in the energy with which it had carried it on. “I don’t want to say that we cannot do more,” Mr Fraser continued, “because as long as there is any energy we can use we can still do better. But our efforts are appreciated and valued by the Prime Minister of Britain, Mr Churchill, the War Cabinet and Gov-, ernment and the whole population. What we have done here is known and is appreciated.”

PRISONERS OF WAR. Mr Fraser said he had made it his special business to inquire into the position of prisoners of war. Parcels being made up by hundreds of women workers in London were being sent into the prison camps regularly through the International Red Cross in Geneva. He had made it plain in Britain that Maori and pakeha in New Zealand were brothers and no distinction was being made in the treatment of both as prisoners of war. Inquiries showed, he added, that the food and parcels sent were reaching the prisoners of war. . After dealing, on the lines of his earlier address in Auckland, with war events in Greece and Crete and with the Pacific situation, Mr Fraser went on to state that in Britain he had .discussed measures for strengthening the Dominion’s defences. Mr Semple, in

Australia, and Messrs Coates Langstone, in the United States, had done remarkably fine work in a similar direction, so it could be said that the Government was doing all that was humanly possible. The best way to help Britain and her .allies, and all the countries that had been attacked was to go full out to make New Zealand’s own war effort as strong as it could be. Mr Fraser said that he had no doubt of the anxiety of the British and the United States Governments to give every possible assistance to Russia. He believed that even if the Russians had to retreat from Kiev and Leningrad and Moscow, so long as they maintained their line intact, Hitler was already beaten. This view was held authoritatively in Britain. If trouble did come and if outshores were attacked and if we had to rally to the defence of our own country here, then all he could ask for, all he could wish for and pray for was that we in this country would prove ourselves worthy of the brave boys on land, on sea and in the air who had gone from our shores and were fighting for us and worthy of our kith and kin in the Mother Country.