POLICY IN PACIFIC

Evening Post, Volume CXXVII, Issue 62, 15 March 1939, Page 8

POLICY IN PACIFIC

DEFENCE CONFERENCE

PLAN WELCOMED

DOMINIONS' PROBLEM

(From "The Post's" Representative)

SYDNEY, March 11,

The conference, aiming at closer coordination of Empire defence measures in the Pacific and to be held in NewZealand late this month, has been heartily and widely welcomed in Australia. The conference, according to information from Canberra, was originally suggested by New Zealand. It is believed that the visit of the British Air Mission to Australia and New Zealand emphasised the desirability of holding the conference at the present time.

The members of the Air Mission will leave for New Zealand shortly, and will spend about a fortnight there. The result of their inquiries, as well as their report to the Australian Government, will be available for discussion at the conference. It is probable that! Lieutenant-General Squires, who has already reported on Australian military measures, will go to New Zealand with the Commonwealth delegation. For some time Australian defence authorities have been emphasising the urgent need for closer co-ordination of British defence policy in the Pacific. The development of naval plans since the completion of the Singapore Naval Base and the increase in long-distance flying services are factors which made consideration of long-range plans of vital importance in Pacific defence strategy. Apart from the advisability of rapidly-expanding aircraft construction in Australia and New Zealand, which will be "one of the main topics of discussion at the conference, the subject of island naval and air bases northward and eastward of Australia) is expected to be discussed. Plans for closer co-operation between the Royal Australian Naval Squadron and New Zealand warships will be discussed, and linked with this is a suggestion already widely canvassed that Australia should. ; provide a dock capable of accommodating a capital ship. [ COMMON BASIS NECESSARY. The accepted Australian view on | Pacific defence can be simply stated. It is that Australia and New Zealand have common defence problems, for, j as island Dominions, their focus of interest is in the Pacific and it is essential that they should get together and discuss defence on a common basis. The proposed conference between British, New Zealand, and Australian defence experts, it is considered here, indicates a tightening-up of Imperial defence strategy. Neither Australia nor New Zealand, defence experts say, has any immediate fear of large-scale invasion. What they have to guard against is hit-and-run coastal raids on industrial centres and public utilities, and attacks on shipping. This demands local fortifications, a highly-trained mobile land force, a naval force, and an air arm co-operating with them all. It is along these lines that both Aus- j tralia and New' Zealand have planned their defences, but for each Dominion, the first line of defence remains the British Navy centred on Singapore.

The opinion has been expressed here that the conference may achieve more than a plan for pooling Australian and New Zealand resources in an emergency. It may lead to a closer understanding with the' United States, whose increasing participation in world affairs is a reminder that she has a vital interest in Pacific politics. New Zealand is closer to the American naval base at Hawaii than she is to Japan or Singapore. An understanding between the United States, Britain, and the Dominions would be a positive assurance of peace in the Pacific, observers declare.