U.S. MINISTER

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 57, 5 September 1944, Page 7

U.S. MINISTER

STATE LUNCHEON

HAND OF FRIENDSHIP

. 'You are well equipped to come into a democratic country as the representative of one of our greatest ?^^Msr^i es>"stated the Prime Minister, addressing Sir. K. S. Patton, JJ»»ted States Minister to New Zealand, at tiie State luncheon given in his honour at the Hotel Waterloo yesterday. ' Mr. Fraser referred to Mr. Patton's previous service in Singapore, Calcutta, and elsewhere, to the friendship existing between the United States and New Zealand, and to the stimulus given fo those relations by Mr. Patton's predecessors in office in this country—General Hurley and the late Mr. Burdett—and by the arrival t? ? ewr,? c xaland at a critical time of United States forces, Because of another important mission, he had been given, namely, to bring aid to GenerM Mac Arthur in the Philippines, some tune elapsed between General Hurley's appointment and the taking up of his post in New Zealand, said Mr. Fraser. When eventually he took up his duties in the Dominion, .General Hurley said he brought- with him the "pledge of 130,000,000 American people to assist New Zealand and the other democracies in the South Pacific. (ApPl^e.] They were words that had thrilled everybody, and they knew from the action • taken by President Roosevelt in regard to lend-lease and the making of supplies available to those-who "were holding aloft the flag of democracy that they were not idle words. TRIBUTE TO U.S. FORCES. In the succeeding months a fine body.of men from the United States forces came to New Zealand."Like the men of the New Zealand Forces, they were the best ambassadors of their country. They were men that New Zealand understood. There were also ,such men as Admiral Ghormley, Admiral Halsey, and now Admiral Newton. He wished also to pay tribute to General Vandergrift and other United States commanders who had played an ' important part against the Japanese: in the South Pacific, and also to the late Admiral Callaghan, "one of the most able men who ever trod the i quarterdeck." They also remembered the armada which sailed from Wellington harbour nearly a year ago , taking United States forces to the Pacific Islands and the bitter and cruel fate which many of those men met at Tarawa. Mr. Patton came to a country where the way had been prepared into the hearts of the people, continued Mr Fraser. This was riot -Mx. Patton's first experience of a British community. He was in Singaoore until it was overrun by the Japanese, and afterwards was in Calcutta. Mr. Patton came from Virginia, a famous State, which gave at least five great Presidents to the United States "We are here to offer you friendship and co-operation and to wish you the greatest measure of success in your mission to t>r country," said Mr. Fraser, in proposing Mr. Patton's health. The toast was drunk to the accompaniment of musical .honours. MUCH IN COMMON. "The warm words of welcome of the Prime Minister," sajd Mr. Patton in his reply, "are an .'eloquent echo of the kindness which has overwhelmed me ever since I set foot on New Zealand soil and which I gladly accept as a. tribute of friendship to the country which I have the honour to represent —the.'same cordial friendship which I am confident that your distinguished Minister in Washington, Mr. Berendsen, is encountering in the United States.. "The good relations between our two countries are not fortuitous. They spring from, a similarity of origin, a common heritage of language and of pioneering instincts, and from the same unquenchable thirst for truth, human rights, and freedom. "Two and a half years ago at a similar function here to honour the first American Minister to New Zea-land^-Patrick Hurley declared that the need of the hour was to attack, defeat, and destroy. "The combined forces of the United ' Nations have smitten the hosts of Hitlerism and of Japan so mightily and so unremittingly that they are , reeling back to their inevitable doom,, and a glorious victory for the armies of .humanity is imminent. The time for discarding the weapons of war for the implements of peace is close at hand." ■ The remainder of Mr. Patton's reply appears under separate headirigs. In addition to representatives of the Legislature, others present at the luncheon included members of the, Consular Corps and representatives of the Armed Forces.