"PEACE MEETING" REPORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 17, 21 January 1944, Page 5

"PEACE MEETING" REPORT

(Special P.A. Correspondent.) Rec. 10.45 a.m. LONDON, Jan. 20 The "Daily Telegraph" states that "Pravda" published the British Foreign Office's denial of the "peace meeting" report. The denial, appeared in the same position in "Pravda" as the original Cairo report. It was also published in the "Red Star" and the "Isvestia." "Pravda" made no further comment on the report.

jlightenment. Objectives presented in nebulous fashion would not contribute appreciably to well-informed public opinion in either country. As far as immediate security and effective prosecution of the war permit, it is important that both peoples should be given all the major facts and considerations which affect the prospects of the two Dominions as segments of the British Empire and as partners with other nations in seeking to rid the post-war world of predatory aggression. Open discussion is characteristic of Democracy, and pacts backed by informed public opinion may well prove mere efficacious than those incubated in the privacy of inter-governmental conferences. The subjects discussed are far too large to be the monopoly of the! delegates to the conferences, however able and far-seeing. What is needed is a proper understanding of the implications by the people of the two Dominions." IMMIGRATION PROBLEM. While most of the Australian comment stresses the vital Southern Pacific defence aspects of the conference, it is realised that much wider co-opera-tion is implied in the agreement reached. It is known, too, that the conference discussed matters which have not yet been referred to in the j official statements. One such matter was the complex problem of post-war immigration. Both the New Zealand and Australian Governments are seized of the vital need for greater populations, and this subject is certain to loom large at subsequent Anzac conferences. The common ground on which the two Governments met was well summarised by Mr. Fraser when he said: "An influx of people on low economic levels can create grave problems for countries which have set high standards of living."