The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 1936. COMMON DESTINY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 151, 27 June 1936, Page 8

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun.

SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 1936. COMMON DESTINY.

For the oause that lucks assistance. For the wrong that needs resistance For the future in the distance, 'And the good that we can do.

The Prime Minister, when receiving at Parliament House this "week the members of the touring Australian football team, used the opportunity to appeal for a greater degree of eo-operation between the Commonwealth and the Dominion. "When they talked about trade and other things that should be faced with a common purpose," he said, "the two countries seemed to look upon each other with a degree of suspicion, but the day for that kind of thing had gone, and the time had come to realise that the two countries must face the future as one people. In the past there had been a tendency to think that Australia must beat New Zealand in trade dealings, and vice versa, as in a football match. He did not look upon it in that way, thinking instead that anything that benefited Australia would benefit New Zealand, and vice versa."

The obstacles to the realisation of Mr. Savage's hopes are greater than his words imply, but the spirit which permeated his utterance is admirable, and it is especially important at this time. There is as there should be —friendliness between the peoples divided by the Tasman Sea, but an observer who noted the commercial bickering between the two countries might be forgiven for thinking they were on terms of enmity. It is discreditable to the past Governments of both countries that in their trade dealings each has tended to be influenced more by the clamour of sectional interests than by a desire to conclude a bargain satisfactory to both. Many of the trade restrictions enforced by European countries appear from this distance short-sighted and silly, but an impartial observer in Europe would undoubtedly form the same opinion of the embargoes Avhich have prevented Australians from buying cheap potatoes at seasons when New Zealand has them to sell, and New Zealanders#from buying oranges at times when Australia has an exportable abundance of them. European trade restrictions sometimes arise from oldstanding national antipathies, but Australia and New Zealand have not even that excuse. The time is more than ripe for a determined effort to be made to negotiate a long-term trading agreement between the two countries, such an agreement to include a mutual undertaking not in any circumstances to apply embargoes, which are fruitful of misunderstanding and ill-feeling.

There is another and even more pressing need for co-operation between the two countries. They have a common defence interest. Anything which the one imperils the other, and anything which •increases the security of one is to the advantage of both. At this time neither country can afford to watch the steady and relentless gathering of storm-clouds in Europe without considering—in consultation —what the threatened storm may portend for them both. If war should come—and a disturbingly large number of observers in Europe regard, that as inevitable —the position of these Southern Dominions would be more exposed and in many respects much less strongly defended than it was in 1914. There is evidence that the Commonwealth Government is aware of the situation and is taking long strides, to meet ib; but if there is the same official apprehension in New Zealand it has not been a stimulus to adequate action. New Zealand has a new and energetic Government, but no member of it has yet had the time or opportunity to make personal contact with the Australians. That opportunity—in ■ the interests both of trade and defence —should be sought and grasped as soon as possible.