OFFICIAL REPORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 January 1943, Page 3

OFFICIAL REPORT

ENTIRE FIELD OF WAR SURVEYED WORK OF COMBINED STAFFS. • ASSURANCES TO RUSSIA AND CHINA. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, has received the official text of a communique issued yesterday which gave details of the official personnel attending the Roosevelt—Churchill conference opened at Casablance on January 14, and proceeded: — “For ten days the combined staffs have been in constant session, meeting two or three times a day and recording progress at intervals to the President and' the Prime Minister. The entire field of the war was-surveyed, theatre by theatre, throughout the world, and all resources were marshalled for more intense prosecution of the war by sea. land and air.

“Nothing like this prolonaed discussion between the two Allies has ever taken place before. Complete agreement was reached between the leaders of the two countries and their respective staffs upon war plans and enterprises to be undertaken during the campaign in 1943 against Germany, Italy and Japan, with a view to drawing the utmost advantage from the markedly favourable turn of events at the close of 1942.

“Premier Stalin was cordially invited to meet the President and the Prime Minister, in which case the meeting would have been held very much farther to the east. He is, however, unable to leave Russia at this time on account of the great offensive which he himself, as Commander-in-Chief, is directing. “The-President and the Prime Minister realised to the full the enormous weight of the war which Russia is successfully bearing along her whole land front, and their prime object has been to draw as much of the weight as possible off the Russian armies by engaging the enemy as heavily as possible at the best-selected point. Premier Stalin has been fully informed of the military proposals. “The President and the Prime Minister have been in communication with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. They have apprised him of the measures which they are undertaking to assist him in China’s magnificent and unrelaxing struggle for the common cause. “The occasion of the meeting between the President and the Prime Minister made it opportune to invite General Giraud to confer with the combined chiefs of staff, and to arrange for a meeting between him and General de Gaulle. The two Generals have been in close consultation. “The President and the Prime Minister and the combined staffs, having completed their plans for the offensive campaign in 1943, have now separated in order to put them into active and concerted execution.”