HAILED IN AUSTRALIA

Wairarapa Times-Age, 29 December 1943, Page 2

HAILED IN AUSTRALIA

VISIT BV NEW ZEALAND MINISTERS HOPE of CLOSE UNDERSTANDING ON QUESTIONS OF PACIFIC SECURITY. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, December 28. Nev/ Zealand and Australia should have a clear understanding of each other’s points of view before any Imperial conference is held in 1944, Australian political commentators believe. Especially in southern Pacific matters agreement on post-war policy between the two members of the British Commonwealth immediately concerned must precede any general agreement by the Empire nations as a whole. For these main reasons the visit to Australia next month of the New Zealand Cabinet Ministers led by Mr Fraser is being hailed here as marking a new and important accord in the relations of the two Dominions. “New Zealand is our natural ally and blood brother,” declares the Sydney “Sun” in an editorial. “Today its security is ours, its prosperity marches with our own, and, because of these mutualities, its foreign policy should be identical with ours. “With New Zealand v/e share responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security in the future in the wide arc from Portuguese Timor through the Bismarck Archfpelago, New Guinea and the Solomons to New Caledonia and Fiji. Our interests in trade and in the air are closely related. Both countries must share the control of air bases strung across the Pacific, for they are stepping-stones linking us with the Americans.

“The discussions of common problems between the political leaders of both Dominions will enable a concerted Pacific voice to be heard in the coming Empire confei-ence.' Such a community of policy will be a potent force for understanding between the two Dominions and a guarantee of mutual defence and common security.” The Sydney “Daily Telegraph” in a leader today praises Mr Nash’s suggestion of a trusteeship federation of five nations (the United States, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand) to control the Pacific Islands and so avoid monopoly or conflict. “Mr Nash has found the only possible compromise between two strong competitors,” says the paper. “His suggestion points the way to the world of co-operative effort. With the aviation rights of the Pacific and other bases internationally controlled, neither America nor Britain would lose anything and the small nations would gain. Mr Nash will find many friends for his proposal in America.”

The Minister of External Affairs, Dr. H. V. Evatt, said he hoped that after the conference between the New Zealand and Australian representatives it would be possible to hold, also in Australia, a wider conference consisting of accredited representatives of all the Powers with territorial interests in the South-West Pacific.

Dr. Evatt said agreement had been reached between the Governmnets upon the agenda for the forthcoming conference covering a wide and important range of subjects. Both countries, he said, had, by their resolute and long-sustained war effort, earned the right to play a leading role in the future of this part of the world.