GOING TO CANBERRA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 December 1943, Page 2

GOING TO CANBERRA

TO DISCUSS PACIFIC POLICY NEW ZEALAND DELEGATION. HEADED EY PRIME MINISTER I (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. The. Prime Minister, Mr Eraser, announced last, night that he would visit; Canberra during January to meet the .Prime Minister of Australia, l\lr Curtin, the .Minister of External Affairs, Dr Evatl, and other Commonwealth Ministers, to discuss common interests and problems of the t wo countries and their future policies, particularly in relation to their position in the South and South-West Pacific regions. The other New Zealand delegates to the conference would be the Minister of Defence, Mr Jones, the Minister of Labour, Mr Webb, and the New Zealand High Commissioner in Australia, Mr C. A. Berendscn. The Prime Minister said that as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations both Australia and New Zealand had heavy responsibilities to discharge in the South and South-West Pacific area, and the opportunity to learn and discuss each other’s viewpoint was both useful and necessary. The agenda submitted by Australia was a very wide one, and included such subjects as post-war security zones, welfare of native peoples, administration of island territories, communications and the provision of means for closer co-operation and collaboration between Australia and New Zealand, whose peoples were so vitally concerned in the peace, welfare and good government in the Pacific, and both of whom had by their wholehearted and sustained war effort earned the right to play a leading role in the future in this part of the world. MR NASH’S SUGGESTIONS. It was stated yesterday by the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, that the proposals attributed to the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash, in Canberra, for a Pacific Islands Federation under the trusteeship of the United States, France, Britain, Australia and New Zealand and his comments were, as Mr Nash himself clearly indicated, exclusively bis own personal suggestions. I Mr Fraser added that they had not yet I been considered by the Government, but they would be examined along with other proposals relating to the future of the Pacific islands and their peoples. So far as the reference to the projected conference of British Commonwealth. Prime Ministers was concerned, Mr Fraser commented that there appeared to be some misunderstanding in the report from Australia, as the date had not yet been definitely fixed.