APPEAL FOR AID

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 88, 24 January 1942, Page 6

APPEAL FOR AID

URGENT NEED EMPHASISED. THE POSITION OF AUSTRALIA. CALLS TO ROOSEVELT AND ' CHURCHILL, United Press Association—Copyright.) (Rec. 2 p.m.) MELBOURNE, This Day. Cablegrams emphatically emphasising the urgent need for assistance were sent to President Roosevelt and Mr Churchill at the conclusion of tho emergency meeting of tho Australian V ai Cabinet late last night. Statements to which the utmost significance can be attached were issued by the Minister for External Affairs (Dr. Evatt) and the Minister for Supply (Mr Beasley), emphasising the need for reinforcements m the 1 acific. Dr. Evatt said that the campaign in Malaya was not a sideshow but a primary and vital struggle between the Democracies and all throe Axis powers, and the demand for maximum Allied defence in Malaya and the East Indies was based on a broad and realistic view of the war.

Mr Beasley said that the fight in the Pacific was a fight for continuance of the British Empire and the people of Britain must look the Empire squarely in the face. The British Government was deluding itself ii it failed to see that the battle of the Pacific was the battle of the Atlantic too.

Taken in conjunction with the plea by Mr Fordo in a national broadcast for Allied reinforcements in Malaya the statements of the two Ministers can bo regarded as a guide to the tone of the communications which were sent to the. British Government and to tho Australian Minister at Washington (Mr J. R. Casey) for transmission to President Roosevelt.

It is stated on the highest authority that- the gravity of events in the Pacific and the urgency of the need for reinforcements of all types could not be over-emphasised.

Mr Forde said that the next stroke by the enemy might well be an attempt over the mainland of Australia itself. “J am certain,” he said, “the enemy will make an attack, perhaps not at once, but make it- lie will. We are ready. We will never surrender. We cannot delude ourselves about the future. We will have to fight, as Australians have never fought before, for our very existence.” The Prime Minister (Mr J. Curtin), interviewed at Kalgoorlie, said: “Australia. will in no circumstances surrender to Japan. 'The only Australian who would co-operate with Japan would be a dead Australian.” He spurned General Tojo’s offer to Australia to cooperate with Japan and so avoid destruction. “There can be no thought of co-operation with aggression,” said Mr Curtin.