DOMINION AND SOVIET

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 172, 23 July 1941, Page 11

DOMINION AND SOVIET

CLOSER RELATIONS SOCIETY (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Tuesday. A meeting under the chairmanship of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Hon W. E. Barnard, who is also president of the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, was held to discuss the formation of a society to improve relations with Russia. Among those present were representatives of cultural groups, and of professional and , business men and women. It was resolved to form an organisation named the New Zealand Society for Closer Relations with Russia, the object being to promote cultural, diplomatic and economic relations between New Zealand and the Soviet and to do everything possible to help secure victory against the Nazis and Fascists. The meeting decided to send a letter to the acting-Prime Minister, the Hon. W. Nash, expressing the view that the Government should give consideration to exchanging diplomatic representatives with the Soviet, and investigate the possibilities of greater trade and putting at the disposal of the Russian people any surplus commodities in New Zealand not needed for war purposes by Britain or the British Dominions. The executive committee elected included the Hon. W. E. Barnard Mr. H. Atmore, M.P., Mrs. C. C. S. Stewart, M.P., the Rev. P. Paris, the Rev. W. S. Rollings, Mr. C. G. Scrimgeour and Mrs. Staples.