HELP FROM AMERICA

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 83, 5 October 1944, Page 9

HELP FROM AMERICA

DOMINION'S APPRECIATION

The American Minister to New Zealand, Mr. Kenneth S. Patton, and Mrs. Patton, were guests at a reception given by the British-American Cooperation Movement last night The president, Mr. C. H. Weston, K.C., presided, and the Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser); in his capacity as patron of the movement, extended' the welcome.

Mr. Fraser said that when he met Mr. and Mrs. Patton in Washington a few months ago he knew that they were the sort of people that Few Zealand would take to its heart. He recalled the arrival here of the first United States Minister, General Hurley, -who at a dark- hour brought an assurance that the 130,000;OGO people in his country were ready to stand by the democracies in the Pacific. There could be no better successor to the late Mr. Burdett than Mr. Patton, who hailed from the great State of Virginia, which had contributed so much to the cause of freedom. "I feel certain that history does not record any more generous action than that of the President of the United States when he sanctioned ' the lerid-lease agreement," said the Prime Minister. "This was at a time when his action constituted a great political and national risk. The significance of a non-bel-ligerent nation stepping in and making itself the arsenal of freedom before it was at war. itself will never be forgotten by the British nation."

In his reply, Mr. Patton said that when the news of his appointment was received their first reaction was one of pleasure at being sent to a friendly country where the people had the same ideals as they had. "Co-operation to any American means progress—cooperation is the natural enemy of aggression." He added that they had a saying in Virginia that you never get something for nothing. The lendlease arrangement • was a response to British courage and tenacity. Mr. Sydney Greenbie, special assistant to the Minister, and head of the United States Office of War Information in New Zealand, emphasised the necessity for accurate information if the good that had come of the war was not to perish. "We of the democracies must protect and expand the very spirit of our .democratic being," he said. "We live by and sustain ourselves on freedom of expression within our own world. We" must see to it that freedom. of information is made the basis of the peace we hope that will endure. It is in that spirit that my Government has sent me here."