DEVELOPMENTS IN PACIFIC

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25677, 14 December 1948, Page 4

DEVELOPMENTS IN PACIFIC

DOMINION’S FUTURE TASKS

“I believe now that the Pacific is going to be the ocean where the most important things in the world are going to happen, when the eastern nations have equipped themselves,” said the Primate of New Zealand (Archbishop West-Watson) in his address as warden at the prize-giving ceremony of Christ’s College last evening. New Zealand had a. great mission in the Pacific, continued Archbishop West-Watson. It had real work to do in sharing out the great traditions of the British Empire, free from some of the defects which had formerly made it difficult for some nations to realise the good heart behind those traditions. A long, statesmanlike view was needed, so that the future could best be met. New Zealanders should ask themselves what was their special mission in the Pacific, which was really their ocean. They should try to make all the peoples of the Pacific into a i brotherhood. Outlining some of his impressions on his recent visit to England, Archbishop West-Watson said that by its conduct of the Olympic Games, Britain had won golden opinions both for its hospitality and for the splendid spirit in which the Games were conducted. If Europe was going to be raised, possibly with Marshall aid at one end of the lever, there would need to be a fulcrum for the operation, and, added Archbishop West-Watson, he thought England was going to be that fulcrum. He hoped England would be strong and to.ugh enough to bear the strain. England was working out something new in its economic system; it seemed as if it had been stirred up. and no one knew what was coming to the top. Everyone was anxious to see the results, and to know who would set the country’s future standards. The whole feel of the countryside was changing.