Will Be There

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 256, 28 October 1944, Page 1 (Supplement)

Will Be There

PACIFIC FIGHTING

Australian Divisions To Have Part

"The Australians will be repre sented in the active fighting to the north of Australia," declared the deputy-Prime Minister of Australia, Mr. F. M. Forde, who is also Minister for the Army, in a brief interview this afternoon following his arrival by air in company with Dr. H V. Evatt, Minister of External Affairs, from the Commonwealth. "Australia is still maintaining its war effort at the maximum," said Mr. Forde. "The Australian Government is determined to maintain the Australian fighting forces at the maximum operational strength of which the nation is capable. Until recently the Australian Army performed most of the land fighting in the south-west Pacific area. The Australian Army in the future will take part in campaigns of equal if not greater importance than any in which they have already taken part." Mr Forde refused to be drawn into any definite statement as to the extent of Australia's participation in the fighting in the forward areas. Apart from that initial statement he contented himself with an expres-. sion of the warm feeling felt in Australia towards New Zealand, and particularly the early association that there had been between Australian forces and the New Zealand Division which had distinguished itself in the Middle East in a way that had won the admiration of the world. New Zealand's airmen, too, had been associated with Australians in Britain, and together they had rendered great service with the R.A.F. in bombing forays over Europe. In the critical days of 1942, when, for the first time, Australia and New Zealand had both been threatened with invasion, Australia had been delighted and heartened, he said, to receive visits from the Dominion Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, and other Ministers, when the dangers facing the two nations were discussed. Australia had been very pleased to render some service to the Dominion, though that assistance had had to be limited because of the Commonwealth's precarious position. "We in Australia feel deeply in-; debted to Mr. Fraser and the Government of New Zealand for their friendly co-operation at all times," said Mr. Forde. "We are both outposts of the British Empire in the Antipodes, and 98 per cent, of our people are of British stock. We share the same ideals and aspirations, and the closer the bonds of friendship between the two nations the better it will be for the peoples of both our countries. I sincerely hope that the co-operation that has been so evident in meeting the common threats of war will be used to the fullest in finding a solution to the post-war problems of the Dominions." Referring to the earlier struggle with which Australia was burdened in the South-west Pacific war, Mr. Forde said that the Australian Army faced a tremendous task. The aggregate number of Australians engaged in New Guinea approximated 10 divisions.