THE PRIME MINISTER
RETURN FROM MISSION TO AUSTRALIA IMPRESSION OF GENERAL MACARTHUR. GREAT & GIFTED LEADER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The Prime Minister, Mr Fraser,' returned to New Zealand yesterday by air from his visit to Australia. He left Canberra about midnight and arrived at a North Island aerodrome at 10 a.m. after a flight of approximately eight hours. He was met on his arrival 'by the Minister of Supply and Munitions, Mr Sullivan, who was Acting-Prime Minister during Mr Fraser's absence from the Dominion. A meeting of the War Cabinet was' held following the Prime Minister’s return to Wellington in the afternoon. The United States Minister to New Zealand, BrigadierGeneral Hurley, returned to New Zealand with Mr Fraser. “I was very much impressed with Australia’s war effort; there is a full realisation on the part of the Australian Government of the seriousness of the present situation in all spheres of war activity,” said the Prime Minister when discussing his mission to Australia in an interview last night. “The Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Curtin, and his colleagues realise that there is absolutely no justification for complacency at the present time. Though Australia has achieved much in its war effort it is organising for still greater achievements.” Mr Fraser said he was particularly struck with the complete confidence that existed between Mr Curtin and General Commander-in-Chief of the South-West Pacific Area. Each had the full confidence of the other, and they worked together m the closest co-operation. He was satisfied that in Mr Curtin Australia had a Prime Minister who was most thorough and efficiently equipped to lead the Commonwealth in its great war effort.
“General MacArthur, who I met for the first time, is a man of outstanding ability and courage, and full of dynamic energy,” said Mr Fraser. “He immediately impresses those who. meet him with confidence, both for his individual capacity for discharging any task allotted to him and for his great gift of inspired leadership.” The Prime Minister said the problems discussed at the meetings of the Australian War Cabinet and War Advisory Council which he attended on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, were very similar to those that engage the attention of the War Cabinet, the War Administration and the War Council in New Zealand. The consultations he had with Mr Curtin, the War Cabinet and the War Council related to matters of first-rank importance as affecting the war generally and the war in the Pacific in particular. Mr Fraser added that he saw evidence everywhere of vast strides being made in munition equipment and aeioplane construction. In this connection there was a good understanding and co-operation between New Zealand and Australia. New Zealand was obtaining a good proportionate share of Australian war production. “I was pleased to meet members ,oi all parties, including present-day Ministers and ex-Ministers, all of whom since the war commenced have invariably co-operated with New Zealand,” concluded Mr Fraser.,
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/WAITA19420801.2.59.5
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1942, Page 5
Word count
Tapeke kupu
489THE PRIME MINISTER Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 August 1942, Page 5
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Wairarapa Times-Age. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.