NEW ZEALAND'S PACIFIC FORCE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 231, 29 September 1943, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND'S PACIFIC FORCE

TT is now officially announced that the New Zealand troops' in the Pacific have moved to a forward area, and have had their first contact with the enemy, who has dropped bombs without causing casualties or damage. The announcement emphasises the need for clarification of our military commitments. Speaking at New Plymouth in the course of his election campaign, Mr. Eraser said that it had never been claimed that we could maintain a Division in the Middle East, and also keep our men in the Pacific indefinitely. The Government, he said, had taken steps to ensure that we were not over-committed, and that eventually one Division must be used to reinforce, the other. Perhaps, he added, should our force in the Middle East go into Europe our troops in the Pacific would be used to strengthen the Second Division. All that is very indefinite and non-committal. The Pacific force is now- in the combat zone; it may be in combat before long, either offensively or defensively. Mr. Fraser has indicated the possibility of our Middle East Division going into action in Europe, and thus it may ,be that both forces will be fighting simultaneously—enemy action may enforce it. In this event it might be impossible to reinforce one Division from the other, especially as the time factor could be of vital importance. There is no suggestion of a defeatist policy, though Mr. Fraser raised it, in weighing up future possibilities in the light of his statement, and in view of the new development he should let the new Parliament know, in much clearer terms than he has yet expressed, exactly what is the anticipated future of both forces. Primary production is vitally important to this Dominion, and to the fighting forces who depend upon it for a large proportion of their foodstuffs, and in the fourth year of the war it should be possible to allocate the proportions of our strength which the productive and the fighting forces demand, and to let Parliament and people know what the future holds for both.