Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1941. PACIFIC DANGERS AND EMPIRE TIES.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 30 December 1941, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1941. PACIFIC DANGERS AND EMPIRE TIES.

difficulty is likely to arise over the questions touched upon by the Federal Prime Minister (Mr Curtin) in statements reported yesterday—those arising out of the necessity by which Australia is faced of looking to her own immediate defence and of seeking the closest practicable military co-opera-tion with the United States. Having said that, with war in the Pacific, Australia looked to America rather than Britain, Mr Curtin added in a following statement that this was not to be taken as meaning a weakening of Australia’s ties with the British Empire. Australia’s nexus with America, he said, was that of a military alliance made necessary by geographical considerations.

It may be supposed that this presentation of the facts will be approved as unreservedly in London and in Washington, as in Canberra. Certainly it may be approved in this country, which occupies a position closely analagous to that of Australia. Like our kinsfolk across the Tasman, we are called upon to adapt ourselves with all possible speed to a new and definitely menacing Avar situation. We have lost nothing of our interest and concern in the Avar viewed from the broadest standpoint. Even with the danger in plain sight that we may be attacked in our own territory, avc assuredly shall not regret that the New Zealand Division is playing its part valiantly in the Middle East, or that New Zealanders are serving in many distant fields on land and sea and in the air.

"What Ave are now called upon to do is to maintain and support our forces overseas and at the same time make all the provision and preparation that are possible for the defence of our own shores. In this we must rely primarily upon our own resources and next upon the most effective contact that can be achieved with allies. Our nearest alliance is with Australia, but with Britain loaded as she hoav is in distant and vast theatres of Avar it is reasonable that New Zealand, like Australia, should look, in Mr Curtin’s words, rather to America than Britain.

The question of any weakening of Empire ties does not arise. The United States and Britain are loyal allies and it is natural that in the disposition and use of their total forces to the best advantage, a heavy share of the task to be taken up in the Pacific should be accepted by the United States. It was largely, no doubt, in this broad sense that Mr Curtin made his statement about looking to America. As an ally, the United States will give most useful help and support to Australia and NeAV Zealand in all that is done to help in maintaining the great Pacific bases—Singapore as Avell as the Philippines among them—and by using her powers of attack on the common enemy. It is, of course, staringly obvious that the course of the Avar in the Pacific must depend greatly upon the weight of effective attack the United States is able to bring to bear upon Japan. For the time being the aggressor nation, admittedly exhibiting remarkable enterprise and vigour, has been able to strike with damaging effect, but in doing that it is laying itself open to return blows when the force is available with which to deliver them. Some assurances are already given that the American Fleet, though it has no intention of being beguiled into a premature disclosure of its plans, is not idle. President Roosevelt finds it possible, too, to promise the gallant defenders of the Philippines that they will not lack adequate help against the invaders and that all the resources of the United States are behind them. While nothing can absolve the people of the British Pacific Dominions from making every possible provision for their own defence, their fate evidently must depend ultimately on the general course of the Avar in the Pacific and nothing is established more clearly than that it rests largely with the United States to determine what that course shall be.