MINISTERS WIVES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 85, 11 April 1945, Page 3

MINISTERS WIVES

TELL BRITISH JOURNALISTS LONDON, April 6. When Mrs. Forde and Mrs. Evatt faced British women journalists to-day they turned the tables and became the interviewers,- says the Sydney Morning Herald London correspondent. What emerged clearly was that many people in Britain still do not realise the extent of Australia's war effort or the degree of shortages Australia is enduring. It was news to the majority of these otherwise well-informed women to learn from Mrs. Forde that Australia has more stringent clothes rationing than England, and that evening dresses, which are still being made in Britain, are prohibited in Australia. The journalists asked how Australia had reacted to the news of the bombing of Britain. "We were anxious at first, then proud," said Mrs. Evatt, who added that Australia had known bitterness when Northern Australia was bombed. When she was asked why Australia had maintained her close affection for Britain, Mrs. Evatt said: "I think we are the most British of all the British Commonwealth of Nations. Ninety-nine and some decimal per cent of Australians are of British descent. It is a higher percentage than Britain has." She then counter-attacked- by saying, "What I wonder is, how vitally do you feel the Pacific war here?" She Avas told that English people found it hard to follow maps of the areas where the present Pacific battles are taking place. "I'm afraid from childhood we have concentrated on the map of Europe," one woman said. Mrs. Evatt replied: "I think I should invite you all to Canberra."