ALL WAR THEATRES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 194, 18 August 1942, Page 4

ALL WAR THEATRES

NEW ZEALAND'S SECURITY

INTERDEPENDENCE ASPECT

The inteodependence of Allied operations in the various theatres of war was stressed by the New Zealand Minister to Washington, Mr. Nash, in a broadcast address from England last night. He was not fully convinced, he said, that the New Zealand people were quite aware that their future safety and security lay in the capacity of Russia and China for continued resistance against the enemy, on the ability of the Allies to hold Egypt, on the outcome of the efforts to meet the submarine menace in the Atlantic, and on the security of Britain herself.

It was necessary, said Mr. Nash, to be prepared for any eventuality. Tn the Pacific the first objective must be supremacy in the air and on the sea. Careful and comprehensive planning would be necessary to secure this. The United Nations strategy would suffer a disastrous setback if the remaining bases for future action in the South-west Pacific were lost.

There had not been any tendency in Allied councils to under-estimate the capacity of the Japanese for carrying out a far-flung offensive, or to under-estimate the serious reverses the Allied war effort would suffer if Japan was not held in time. If the Dominion's requirements had not always been met, it had usually been for sound and convincing reasons.

The Pacific War Council had justified, in his opinion, the expectations of those who felt that the successful prosecution of the war in the Pacific, as in other main theatres, demanded first and foremost, co-ordinated direction of war policy, unified command, complete and unconditional pooling of equipment and resources, and their allocation in accord with strategic needs.

The settißg up of a world reconstruction and development council with subsidiary councils organised on a regional basis was suggested by Mr. Nash as a method of dealing with post-war problems.