POST-WAR POLICY IN PACIFIC

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24150, 8 January 1944, Page 6

POST-WAR POLICY IN PACIFIC

NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA PLANS FOR CANBERRA CONFERENCE (Special Australian Corresp., N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 7.30 p.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. 7. The conference of senior Australian arid New Zealand Ministers to be held at Canberra this month is being enthusiastically anticipated by Commonwealth political observers. It is seen as heralding the closest possible liaison between the neighbour Dominions as well as foreshadowing much wider post-war relations with other Pacific nations. . ,

Agreement on the practical principles governing the common security and future development of the two countries is regarded as certain. ‘‘Such conferences should be regular and routine affairs,” says the Melbourne “Herald.” "That they hafre not been so is a discredit to earlier Governments. If the Pacific war has' achieved one good thing it is that it has put an end to the Australian myth of isolation and has forced us not only to know our neighbours, but to take heed of them.” ‘

A post-war policy to guard against future aggression in the Pacific will be a major topic for consideration by the conference. Australia is believed to favour the formation of a Pacific security zone policed by the Powers holding Pacific interests. It suggested that the security zone proposal for the Pacific could be fitted into the general scheme for ensuring future world peace which will be formulated by the general peace conference.

Under the Pacific security zone proposal the nations whose territorial interests are affected will probably contribute men, money, and materials for the defence of the area. As New Zealand and Australia are the most likely sufferers, from any future aggression in the Pacific it is accepted here as essential that they reach an agreement on this vital matter before any broader conferences are held involving other Imperial interests or foreign Powers.

Considerable interest has been aroused in Australia by Mr'Nash’s suggestion of a five-Ppwer federation covering the Pacific islands from the Solomons to the Marquesas. Such an Australia-New Zealand zone of security might be the second line of defence to the suggested American belt of bases running across the Pacific from California to China and including the Pelews, Carolines, Marianas, and Marshalls,

Full Support Expected Many observers believe that Australia and New Zealand will offer wholehearted support to the reported Cairo conference plan of a broad American-held belt between them and Japan. More than concerning itself with actual defence matters, the pending meeting of Australian and New Zealand Ministers is also regarded here as the first important step in a broader policy of regional co-operation. Following the New Zealand-Aus-tralia meeting, the Commonwealth proposes to call a conference of all Powers concerned in the south-west Pacific. These are expected to include the United States, Great Britain, France. New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Portugal.

Other subjects to be considered at the Australia-New Zealand Ministerial talks may include the complex problem of immigration, particularly of coloured immigration. "Australians believe it to be essential that both Dominions be free to develop as great white countries and bastions of British civilisation in the southern Pacific,” says the Sydney “Daily Mirror” in a leading article. "To do this they must have the strength that comes from numbers of people, from high standards of living, and from an expanding industrial economy.” Viewing closer Australia-New Zealand co-operation as a preliminary to greatly widened commonwealth and international relations, and emphasising particularly the need for the closest post-war relations with the United States, the Sydney “Morning Herald” in a leading article says: "It is not alone for security’s sake that we should seek to work in closer association as a regular practice. Beyond security hopes for the development of a richer life in the post-war world demand the firmest basis of international understanding, and such understanding, unless continually cultivated, is likely to be as impermanent as any old-time treaty of alliance and friendship. Australia and New Zealand may well prove powerful influences in bringing about in the wider world thkt political co-operation between Britain and the United States which purely European interests have in the past failed to achieve.”