PACIFIC DEFENCE

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 45, 17 November 1941, Page 6

PACIFIC DEFENCE

Policy Of Australia And New Zealand A COMMON PURPOSE Singapore The Strongest Bastion “A major clash may break out at x any moment in the Pacific,” said the Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash, when referring in an address last night to the common defence policy of Australia and New Zealand. Mr. Nash, who returned to the Dominion a week ago from a visit to the ■ Commonwealth, said that as each day passed so the conviction was reinforced that the military preparedness of Australia would be a powerful and perhaps decisive factor in withstanding any challenge that might come to the survival of freedom and democracy in this quarter of the globe. Japan had joined the Axis camp and was seemingly committed to a policy of aggressive expansion which Australia and New Zealand could only view with the gravest concern. Reference was made by the Minister to the part played by Singapore in the defence of the two countries.

“The seven million people of Australia are today pushing a defence programme of tremendous magnitude,” said Mr. Nash. “Their aim is to achieve a large measure of selfsufficiency in industrial and warlike supplies, and their efforts in this direction are rapidly transforming the country into a vast workshop of defence. At the same time it is no reflection on the very remarkable achievements of our sister Dominion to suggest that our own efforts in New Zealand do not suffer by comparison if due allowance is made for our smaller population and much more limited resources.” Security of Commonwealth. Mr. Nash said it was not his purpose to draw comparisons, which could only serve to give an altogether false picture by confusing the real issues. What was much more important was that in both countries it was clearly understood that our common problem was not only one of defending our own territories, but one which must embrace the fortunes and security of the British Commonwealth itself and of all the democratic countries. In both countries, he believed, the fact was recognized that Australian and New Zealand interests were so closely interwoven and the destinies of the two peoples so completely dependent, the one upon the other, and that both, in turn were so inseparably linked with the fortunes of the Old Country, as to render unrealistic any attempt, to assess individual contributions without reference to the strategic unity of the Empire as a whole. The essential fact was that the war effort of either Dominion wag only secondarily a New Zealand effort or an Australian effort. It was primarily a ioiut effort in defence-of a common cause against a common enemy. A World At War. “The world today is a world at war,” Mr. Nash continued. “There is no major country not directly involved. The term ‘neutral’ has long since lost any meaning. The conflict so far has raged over the whole of Europe, over much of Africa, throughout the Middle East and across every ocean. Prolonged hostilities have at the same time been ravaging a large part of Asia. A major clash may break out at any moment in the Pacific. In such a situation it is to be expected that Australia and New Zealand, by virtue of their geographic, historical, political and cultural affinities should be drawn still closer together, and their mutual interdependence brought into strong relief. “Geography, plus new techniques of war, have made Australia and New Zealand not more than , ever interdependent from a strategic viewpoint. To both Dominions the keeping open of sea communications is of vital concern. To be secure against invasion and against blockade, against attacks on shipping which would sever the allimportant economic ties with Britain, and the outside world, a strong naval force and a strong air force are essential. These forces must be disposed as strategy demands, if they are to prove an effective shield. Imperial strategy, as it affects Australia and New Zealand, hinges on two vital factors, the security of the United Kingdom and the security of Singapore.” Assistance to Britain. Mr. Nash said that in this war as in the last neither Australia nor New Zealand had hesitated to make every possible sacrifice to assist in the defence of Britain. Britain’s survival as a major Power was the surest guarantee New Zealand and Australia could have against an attack on their own shores, or at least of effective resistance should such an attack develop. Australia and New Zealand must not only prepare their home defences against possible aggression, but must be ready also to play a leading role in the protection of adjacent British, colonial or Allied possessions in Oceania, the Indies and Malaya. Singapore, with its magnificent naval base, its capacious airfields, its barracks and camps and fortresses, was the strongest bastion in the defence of these two Dominions, and both were assisting In guarding it. Singapore was the keystone of the defences of the Malay Barrier, the name which the people of Australia and New Zealand now gave to the outer perimeter of their defence system. This chain of islands stretched from the Indian Ocean along the Equator to New Guinea and thence across the South Pacific Ocean. The spheres of responsibility and tlie problems of mutual support were well worked out in times of peace, and with the continually-growing strength of the armed forces of both countries, the future, given a united and determined people in Australia and in New Zealand, could be faced with full confidence.

An attack on Australia would ’be regarded as an attack on New Zealand, and vice versa, and on the basis of this understanding the closest co-or-dination had been maintained in recent years in working out and (perfecting a common defence policy. There existed the fullest exchange of information and the widest possible agreement on defence issues between the two Governments and their defence staffs. After h'is visit to Australia he was satisfied that both countries were taking all adequate measures to prepare against any dangers that could be foreseen. Some of the other factors which bound the Australian and New Zealand peoples so closely together were also discussed by Mr. Nash.