AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

Press, Volume LXXX, Issue 24401, 30 October 1944, Page 4

AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND

CLOSE ASSOCIATION MR FORDE INTERVIEWED (P.A.) AUCKLAND, October 29. Broad issues of policy affecting illations between New Zealand and Australia would be discussed in the conference at Wellington, said the Rt. Hon. F. M. Forde, Deputy-Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for the Army, when he arrived on Saturday. The conference was the first of those to be held under the Canberra Agreement between New Zealand and Australia, and future conferences were to be held at least twice a year if possible, alternately in Wellington andjCanberra. . . . “The Japanese empire will not be defeated easily in spite of the great successes which have recently been achieved in the Philippines,” Mr Forde said. “There will be much hard fighting before final victory is won, and we in Australia have prepared for a considerable period of war abend. However, we have passed the stage in the Pacific where we are merely required to defend ourselves. It was right that Australia and New Zealand, as two units of the British Empire which were closely associated, should meet together to plan for the future, not only for defence but for problems that the post-war period would bring, he said. "I am very glad to be able to say that the Government and people of New Zealand have always given magnificent cooperation to Australia and particularly during war," he added. New Zealand’s War Effort Mr Forde paid tribute to the valour and tenacity of New Zealand’s fighting forces on their many battlefronts and also to the people of New Zealand for their great effort on the home front. New Zealand had been able to keep a force in Italy and it had had troops in battle in the Pacific, where their operations had been conspicuously successful. In ; the skies over Britain and now over the European battlefront Australian and New Zealand airmen had fought and were fighting side by side, and they formed a considerable proportion of the Royal Air Force. “On the home front in New. Zealand I am informed that your problems have been very much the same as ours,” Mr Forde continued. “We are required to feed and service not only our own forces in the Pacific but also the forces of our Allies and to send considerable supplies of food to Great Britain. This has caused a great deal of hardship and inconvenience at home, which the peoples of bath nations have borne magnificently. Political and common ties between New Zealand and Australia have been strengthened during the War, and I believe it is to our mutual advantage that we should continue to strengthen further these connexions.” Australian Forces Australia was still maintaining its war effort at a maximum, and the Government was determined to maintain the fighting forces at the maximum operational strength of which the nation was, capable. Until recently the Australian Army had done most of its land fighting in the Southwest Pacific area. In future it would take part in campaigns of equal if not greater importance than any in which it had already participated. Of Australia’s total population of 7,300,000, enlistments in the fighting forces were 963,000 men, Australians had fought on almost every world battlefront. Mr Forde paid a tribute to the work of New Zealand’s High Commissioner in Australia (Mr J. G. Barclay), whom he described as a worthy successor to Mr C. A. Berendsen and as one of the most popular representatives in Canberra. His appointment had done much to further New Zealand-Aus-tralian relations, and they would be further strengthened by the conferences planned.