CO-ORDINATION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 301, 21 December 1939, Page 6

CO-ORDINATION.

Discussions now in progress between the Hon. P. Fraser and Australia's Cabinet for co-ordination of the war efforts of Commonwealth and Dominion, and Mr. Fraser's wholehearted advocacy of complete co-operation in defensive measures, emphasise the gravity of the crisis the Empire ia facing. Realisation of tho peril is still incomplete in this Dominion, far too often is it said that "we scarcely know that there is a war on." The war is on, the democratic nations are engaged in a struggle which will tax all their i resources, and Mr. Fraser's emphatic] j declaration that these resources must jbe mobilised as completely as

[ possible, with less regard for frontiers and formalities than for the maximum effort is a call to the outer Empire to realise how fiercely democracy is assailed by the ruthless tyranny of Nazism. His tribute to the unity of the British and French nations is a striking one, but even more striking, because it cornea nearer home, is his declaration that the close co-operation already established in' defence activities between- Australia and New Zealand will be extended to economic and business affairs. So far these have been kept in watertight compartments, as far as possible, but the close geographical relationship between the two nations and the fact that they aro competitive producers of a number of similar primary products has Jed sooner or later to a reflection of the conditions of the one on the other, to more or less simultaneous boom and depression periods. The new outlook will no doubt- bp of great help in the warwinning effort, and its use will not end then. Mr. Fraser has earned the thanks of the community for his farsighted statement upon the »- ' " of the wax. 1,