The Press MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1943. South Pacific Supply Area

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24051, 13 September 1943, Page 4

The Press MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1943. South Pacific Supply Area

Negotiations in Australia among representatives of- the British, Australian, and New Zealand Governments, the Pacific Islands administrations, the French National Committee, and the United States Office of Economic Warfare, it was announced by Mr Curtin a few days ago, have produced agreement upon new measures to meet the demands of the South Pacific supply area. Accordingly, Australia has set up, within the Commonwealth Department of Supply, a Pacific Supply Division. New Zealand, Mr Curtin said, would take similar action and become fully responsible for near islands and groups, including Cook, Niue, Western Samoa, and possibly French Oceania. The plan, which covers foodstuffs and other supplies, munitions excluded, provides that “ full programmes of requirements ” are to be furnished to Australia and New Zealand by the island administrations and also by the authorities directing the supply of the United States forces in the Pacific. It will then be possible for Australia and New Zealand to give prompt notice, if and as specific demands exceed their capacity, so that other arrangements can be made. Second, Mr Curtin said, “in obtaining the “ total programmes a full supply “ picture of the whole Pacific will j “be secured for the first time”: 3| promise which reflects somewhat j disturbingly on the past. Moreover, the importance of the Pacific Supply Division, in Mr Curtin’s view, will extend from the period of wartime supply and shipping problems into the “immediate and forward “ post-war periods.” This announcement stands out in clear significance against the background of Quebec, the Patterson-Knudsen mission, and events on the Pacific fighting fronts. The stage of major offensive operations is near, with their urgent and enormous demands, which will be continued in the restoring of the territories liberated from the Japanese.

The responsibility of meeting these demands, to the utmost possible extent, falls to Australia and New Zealand »for two main reasons. It is the best way to centralise and simplify the organising of production; and it is the best way to centralise and simplify the organising of transport. Though the responsibility is not new in kind, it will become heavier, the weight will be redistributed, and new ways and means -of discharging it must be developed. The decisions which Mr Curtin announced have a corresponding importance. In New Zealand, their importance is anxiously emphasised by the difficulties of an unsolved, problem of manpower resources and commitments. Yet, when the cabled report of Mr Curtin’s statement was referred to the Prime Minister, he had nothing to say. Nothing was said elaborately. An “ impression that might be “gathered from the press state- “ ment,” which was Mr Curtin’s statement and a perfectly clear one, was corrected with superfluous care. For the rest, Mr Fraser agreed that there had been discussions and that they had- resulted in a plan which will “ secure the most economic “ utilisation of labour, material, and “ shipping.” The plan will not do this: it is for each responsible Government to make and administer the decisions, in accordance with the plan, that will do it. Such a plan, Mr Fraser concluded, is now “ vitally necessary, in view of the “ increasing demands . . . for supplies of all kinds.” The increase creates a new situation; the new situation calls for new measures. What are they? What is the Government doing? Every farm, every factory in New Zealand is waiting for the answer.