Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1942. THE PACIFIC WAR COUNCIL.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 March 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25, 1942. THE PACIFIC WAR COUNCIL.

the war has developed thus far. in the Pacific, and elsewhere, the Prime .Minister (Mr Fraser) no doubt Ims the weight of opinion in this country solidly behind him in his unqualified support of the Australian proposal that a Pacific War Council should be established in Washington. While the Australian Minister of External Affairs, Dr. Evatt, now in the United States as the special envoy of the Commonwealth, has said that Australia and New Zealand, along with other Allied countries, should have a voice in the Pacific War Council, the United States evidently must be, to an overwhelming degree, the predominant partner in the organisation contemplated. That, indeed, is recognised in the appointment of General MacArthur as Commander-in-Chief in the Anzac area, as well as in some other parts ol: the Pacific theatre, notably the Philippines, and in the enthusiasm with which the appointment has been welcomed in Australia and New Zealand. With Hong Kong. Singapore, and the Netherlands East. Indies in enemy hands for (lie time being. Allied leadership in the Pacific devolves inevitably upon the United States. This makes the establishment of a Pacific War Council in Washington eminently reasonable and desirable, but with its advantages the arrangemenf also impost's limitations which must be laced and accepted. The usefulness of the council obviously will be determined by the extent to which the Dominions and the other Allied countries concerned find themselves able to concur in a policy shaped and directed in the main by the United States. Fortunately there is every reason to believe that in the stress and urgency of the war situation full working agreement will be reached with little difficulty. Even those who would much have preferred that the British Commonwealth of Nations should continue Jo speak with one voice in its war partnership with the United States are bound to recognise that as events in the Pacific have developed, this is no longer possible so far as the Pacific is concerned. It certainly cannot be suggested, however, looking at the Avar as a whole, that the. condition of affairs meantime reached in the Pacific implies any weakening of ties between the. partner States of the British Commonwealth or enfeeblement of the Empire as a whole in its Avar effort. Although the South Pacific Dominions frankly are looking to the United States for assistance and for leadership against, the common enemy, Britain herself is still the principal arsenal and citadel of democracy and, with her Dominions, is rendering vital service to the United States as well as upholding her own cause and that of all free nations. The situation that has developed in the Pacific, with the British Dominions entering into intimate direct contact and comradeship with the United States, is merely one part and aspect of the division of burdens and responsibilities on which the total alliance of anti-Axis nations must rely for ultimate victory against enemies with whom there can be no compromise. It may, indeed, be hoped and believed that the ever closer association of the English-speaking nations in the emergency of war will have lasting effects upon their whole future and that of other nations. The need for international co-operation —a need that, none are better fitted to perceive and to satisfy than the people of the British Commonwealth and those of the United States-—will not end with the Avar. The contribution of the British Commonwealth to that broad co-operation assuredly need not imply, however, any weakening of the link's between its partner States, but may be expected rather to have an opposite effect.