GREATLY IMPRESSED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 July 1942, Page 3

GREATLY IMPRESSED

BY GENERAL MACARTHUR NEW ZEALAND PREMIER IN AUSTRALIA. TALKS WITH RETURNED " SOLDIERS. (By Telegraph—‘Press Association— Copyright) SYDNEY, July 22. The New Zealand Premier, Mr Fraser, today met Mr Curtin, General MacArthur, Admiral Leary (chief of the Allied air forces in the south-west Pacific) and other officers of the Services. Later Mr Fraser spent an hour with General MacArthur and discussed at length the war situation in the Pacific and the world generally. Later in the morning he attended an informal reception in the rooms of a New Zealand war unit, where he met a number of New Zealand returned soldiers, most of whom have been prisoners of war t in Italy. Mr Fraser told them that'the exploits of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Greece, Crete and Libya had been most favourably commented, upon by General MacArthur and by high Australian officers, and also that Mr Churchill in his recent speech in the Commons singled out the New Zealanders for special mention. Mr Churchill had sent to New Zealand a verbatim copy of his speech. Mr Fraser told the men that their deeds had won them a part of New Zealand, and the Government would see that it would be given to them. He spoke to each officer and man individually, and sought information regarding places he visited during his trip to Egypt and men he had met. Mr Fraser said he was greatly impressed by General MacArthur’s extraordinary knowledge and wide grasp of the world situation, and also his dynamic personality.