NOTABLE MEETING

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 October 1943, Page 3

NOTABLE MEETING

EMPIRE & AMERICAN PARLIAMENTARIANS MR CHURCHILL ON OTTAWA GATHERING. OF HAPPY AUGURY FOR DAYS TO COME. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day, 10.35 a.m.) October 28. . “A happy augury” was Mr Churchill’s description when referring in the House of Commons to a conference which, on the invitation of the Canadian branch of the Empire Parliamentary Association, recently took place in Ottawa between delegations from branches of the association in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Bermuda.

Mr Churchill said a notable feature of the meeting was the presence of members of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States. The informal discussions in Canada, some of which were attended by a United States delegation, afforded a valuable opportunity for an exchange of private and quite unofficial views on matters of great interest, covering both defence and the international problems of the British Commonwealth and Empire; also the question of relations between members of the Commonwealth and the United States, both in war and peace. Apart from its value as a means of personal contact and interchange of opinions between representatives of different members of the British Commonwealth, which were of such importance to our mutual relations, this conference was of historic ■significance as being the first occasion on which representatives of the United States had taken part in such a gathering.

Mr Churchill concluded: “In ail these events we can see a happy augury of fellowship and mutual understanding in the days when, after victory, we face together the problems of peace.”