MUCH TO BE DONE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 21 September 1942, Page 3

MUCH TO BE DONE

BEFORE WAR TURNS IN OUR FAVOUR MR FRASER’S IMPRESSIONS. MISSION TO UNITED STATES . & CANADA. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The determined manner in which tiie American people were organising for a total Avar effort was emphasised by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, when lie related in an address last night some of the impressions he had gained during his recent mission to the United States at the invitation of President Roosevelt and to Canada.

Mr Fraser said that representatives of the United Nations with .whom he had had discussions, though unavoidably anxious and even perturbed at the continued successful aggression of the Nazi and Fascist Powers, expressed the greatest confidence in ultimate victory. The position in the Pacific and indeed throughout the world was still hanging in the balance. All depended on the ability of the United Nations to organise adequately and to do so early. Reference was made by Mr Fraser to his discussions with the American leaders. The President, he said, seemed to him even more outstanding than ever as leader of his great nation. He felt when discussing matters with him how providentially fortunate they were in having Mr Roosevelt and Mr Churchill in Great Britain. From the American leaders with whom he had discussions he gathered the impression, both through them and from his observations, that the people of the United States were fully imbued with a whole-hearted determination to prosecute the Avar against the Axis Powers at whatever cost, and for however long till final victory was achieved. There was a full realisation that the struggle would be long drawn out, and that very much more remained to be done before the tide could be turned in our favour.

It was abundantly clear that the Americans themselves had had to face very great difficulties in turning from peace to war. Many of these difficulties had yet to be overcome. They were being faced up to boldly and with characteristic vigour, and problems of enormous complexity were being tackled and solved as speedily as circumstances permitted. The Prime Minister said that just as he left San Francisco, the President delivered to Congress his remarkable message on economic stabilisation. Here again their problem was exactly our problem. Undoubtedly this question of inflation, or the rise in the cost of living, was one of the most serious matters confronting all nations at the present time. “If we in New Zealand are to play our full part in the war in the Pacific alongside the United States, Australia, China, the Netherlands East Indies, and all the other peoples leagued against Japan, our total efforts, civilian as well as military, are required,” said the Prime Minister. “We have done a great deal, and it is most creditable to all concerned, but so long as we have strength and resources not fully utilised for war purposes we must do more; and that, too, is the spirit which I found in the United States.” “The position in the Pacific and, indeed, throughout the world, is still hanging in the balance,” said Mr Fraser, “All depends on the ability of the United Nations to organise adequately and to do so early. Meanwhile, all of us, with a full realisation of the gravity of the issues at stake, must give of our best, heartened by the knowledge that we have by our side, in addition to our own Mother Country, the British Dominions, and the Free United Nations generally, the strongest nation on earth, whose people will stand with us, whether in adversity or in success, until the forces of aggression are decisively defeated. “We must steel ourselves to whatever the immediate future has in stole for us, however hard it may be, knowing that truth, righteousness and freedom will triumph. In the words of President Roosevelt, we _ look confidently forward to the victory of the four essential human freedoms—freedom of speech and expression everywhere—the freedom of every person, and the right to worship God m their own way everywhere; freedom „ fiom want; and freedom from feai.