UNIFIED COMMAND

Wairarapa Times-Age, 9 February 1942, Page 2

UNIFIED COMMAND

ALLIED NAVAL FORCES IN AUSTRALIA & NEV/ ZEALAND AREA. UNDER AMERICAN ADMIRAL. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) T WELLINGTON, This Day. It was announced in Wellington last night by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, that it had been decided that the combined naval forces of the Australian and New Zealand areas should be established under a single command. By agreement with the United States, this command would be exercised by ViceAdmiral Herbert F. Leary, United States Navy, with the title Commander, Anzac Force, Mr Fraser said that this arrangement, and especially the appointment of an American Admiral, would be much appreciated by the people of New Zealand. It was welcomed by the Government as evidence of the co-op-eration of the nations engaged in- the struggle against Japan and their determination to do all in their power to throw back the aggressors. A Press Association cablegram from Washington reports that a communique was issued by the Navy Department on Saturday announcing the formation of the Anzac Forces Command. The conmunique also announced a new naval command designating the forces which were formerly the United States Asiatic Fleet as the “United States Naval Forces in the South-West Pacific.” The Navy Department announced that Vice-Admiral William A. Glassford will command the naval forces in the south-west Pacific. Both ViceAdmirals Leary and Glassford will be subordinate to Admiral Hart, Com-mander-in-Chief in the south-west Pacific. The-reorganisation of the United Nations forces in the Australia and New Zealand area brings the naval operations under a unified command,- and it is intended to satisfy the Australian and New Zealand requests for more closely-knit war organisation, the message states. On January 27 Mr Winston Churchill announced in the House of Commons: “In order to extend the system of unified command which has been set up in the A.B.C.D. area —the south-west Pacific —to all the areas in which the forces of more than one of the united nations will be operating, the eastern approaches to Australia and New Zealand have been styled the ‘Anzac Area,’ and are under United States command. The communications between the Anzac Area and North America are the United States responsibility, while the communications across the Indian Ocean remain a British responsibility.”