Running a war

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32637, 19 June 1971, Page 10

Running a war

Political and External Affairs. By F. L. W. Wood. Reed, 396 pp. (Illustrated). (Reviewed by D.0.W.H.) TWs masterly study of New Zealand politics and overseas relations in war time is a welcome reprint (almost a facsimile) of the volume which appeared originally in the War History programme. It shows a literally young country, inexperienced in dealings between nations, inexperienced equally in handling unusual opinion within its own boundaries, producing, however gropingly, its own firmly shaped foreign policy. It shows too a Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, experienced only in a narrow field, maturing into a statesman with a complete grasp of international issues and procedures. Fraser, your reviewer believes, proved himself the most personally able Prime Minister New Zealand has yet placed in office. The toughness and consistency with which he strove for ethical solutions in international affairs have not yet been fully appreciated. A cynic might say that Peter Fraser was better able to stand up to Churchill and Roosevelt than to stand up to his own supporters at home. War-time strikes, like that of the 1942 Huntly miners, triggered the National

Party’s withdrawal from the War Cabinet The fumbling attempts of the two parties to draw closer together in the interests of the war effort do not place either in an entirely favourable light, though the commonsense arrangement by which the able Coates and the hard-working Hamilton were given a real job to do, however odd constitutionally, was undoubtedly valuable' to the country. Another “morally awkward” situation at home which the government had to handle as best it could was the attitude of the furlough men from the 2nd N.Z.E.F., many of whom felt too much was being asked of them if they returned to the Division in the field. This issue too was handled “softly,” but in full accord with public opinion. There is much of the highest interest in this lucid and luminous text New Zealand's relations with its allies, Britain and then America, are closely followed. Dealings with Samoa are given their due place. Professor Wood can still find space for such episodes as the “plot” unearthed by the Security Intelligence Bureau, though he does not pause to sketch in its more hilarious aspects. Above all this book is supremely well-proportioned; it will be of great value to students of our foreign policy for many years to come.