COMMON IDEALS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 112, 14 May 1934, Page 10

COMMON IDEALS

CLOSER FRIENDSHIP

Tho vast possibilities which are opened up by rapid'eommunication and tho resulting better understanding and friendship between countries, are the fhcino of the letter sent by Mr. J. A. Lyons, Prime Minister of Australia, to Mr. G. W. Forbes, Prime Minister of Now Zealand:—

Dear Mr. Forbes, —." Means of communication between nations are becoming so rapid, and increasing in their rapidity so greatly from day to day, that tho prospect of what tho future may hold . bewilders oven the most imaginative. It is a startling thought that a letter written in Australia today may be in your hands tomorrow, but it is merely an~indica: tion of what, in a few years, we may expect as a matter! of course. '

It is bciauao I realise that the marvels of today bocomo the necessities of tomorrow that I gladly tako this opportunity of utilising, through, the kind offices of Plight-Lieutenant Ulm, a method of communication between our countries which we must all hope will become commonplace.

It is axiomatic that easy •communication between' nations makes for greater international friendship. In the past the sea has been practically the only barrier between New Zealand and Australia. Our people aro of the same blood, they speak the saino language, they have fought side by side in war for the same ideals, and today we, in Australia, find, ourselves facing many problems which aro confronting the people of New Zealand. Therefore I feel that tho future will draw us ever closer.

In common with you, we cherish ideals of British culture, and here again I feel that the speeding •up of communications, which this flight symbolises, must benefit us both.

Already we have realised tho advantages which must accrue to both Dominions through reciprocal trade agreements, and tho start that has been made in this direction may bo only tho forerunner of much grcatei things. ■ You have referred in a previous 0 communication to tho'tourist traffic bet'veen our countries, which differ so greatly in their physical features, and I trust that more and still more people will cross the Tasman. , I conclude this message with the hope that New Zealand will soon eiuergo from the economic crisis of these last few years to a prosperity and happiness greater than her people have ever known. Yours sinerely, J. A. LYONS.

dustries and Commerce and tho pcoplo of New Zealand'! send my cordial greetings. / . r ■ - Flight-Lieutenant Ulm in undertaking tho transmission of' written communication across the Tasman in the short space of a few hours, is drawing closer together the tics .which unite our two countries in their mutual desire for the still further extension of interDominion trade.

Common aims in commerce are bringing into still closer co-opera-tion tho Dominions of Australia and New Zealand, whoso names arc united for ever in the- glorious name of Anzac.—Yours faithfully, . - . P. H. STEWART, .' Minister of Commerce. DEFENCE CO-OPERATION