UNITED STATES AND WAR

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25537, 3 July 1948, Page 8

UNITED STATES AND WAR

REPORT OF MR FREER’S SPEECH MR FRASER REPLIES TO QUESTION (P.A.) WELLINGTON, July 2. The emphatic denial that the Government had in its possession any evidence of financial or commercial aggression by the United States against Britain or any member of the British Commonwealth was given in the House of Representatives to-day by the Prime Minister (Mr P. Fraser). He was answering Mr W. H. Gillespie (Opposition, Hurunui), who quoted a newspaper report of a speech in Timaru by the Government’s youngest member, Mr W. Freer (Mount Albert), who, according to the report, had alleged that the United States was deliberately creating conditions for another war. Mr Freer was not in the House at the time. i Mr Gillespie asked if the Government had in its possession any evidence from the New Zealand Minister in Washington to support such a’contention. “Is this statement an expression of the Government’s views, or does it have the support of the Government?” he asked. Mr Fraser asked leave of the House to make an immediate reply as the matter affected relations with a friendly Power. He said the report quoted by Mr Gilliespie had not been brought to his attention, and he did not know that the member for Mount Albert had made such a statement or that the report was necessarily correct, Mr K. J. Holyoake (.Opposition, Pahiatua): He is only a young chap. Mr Fraser: Every member of this House must have a sense of responsibility. If the statement was made there is absolutely no evidence in the possession of the Government to support it. It is grossly unfair to the United States, and I cannot imagine that the honourable member made such a statement. Our future in the Pacific depends on our relations with the United States, and while I would stand in with the Mother Country in the event of any attempt at financial or commercial aggression by the United States against Britain or any other country in the British Commonwealth my conclusion — and I am in a position second to none in this country to judge—is that nothing of the kind has been attempted by the United States. Instead of fostering war she is giving out hundreds of millions of dollars to alleviate conditions which might cause a war. “If the honourable gentleman nas been correctly reported it is his duty to this House to put the matter right. If not, the newspaper concerned and the member who raised the question here will have a similar duty.” After Mr Fraser resumed his seat Mr Gillespie crossed the floor of the House and handed to the Prime Minister the newspaper cutting on which his question was based