MESSAGE OF HOPE

Evening Star, Issue 24278, 20 August 1942, Page 4

MESSAGE OF HOPE

MR NASH BROADCASTS SHIP CONSTRUCTION FORGING AHEAD (British Official Wireless.) ' (RUGBY, Aug. 18. The Now Zealand Alinister at Washington', Air W. Nash, broadcast to. British’ listeners to-night, giving a “ message of hope and encouragement for the future.” Describing Pearl Harbour as marking the end of one era of American history- and the beginning of another, Mr Nash said: “ American industry, its attitudes, habits, and way of life have all undergone a remarkable transformation. With a section of its people primarily ■wedded to the ways of peace, the American people have become a nation dedicated to the ends of total war, determined to get the job over as quickly as possible.” The battle for production had been won, Mr Nash said, but, given the arms, equipment, and the men to use them, it was still essential to have the means of transporting them. Shipping, therefore, was the mast urgent of the many vital problems confronting the United Nations, atid unless we could solve the problem the chances i were that the tremendous production effort which the United States particularly was putting forth would be largely neutralised. “ The shipyards of Britain and America,” Mr Nash added, “ are performing miracles of construction, but the hour is late and the need great. By our capacity to build ships and keep them afloat to carry war material and reinforcements on an ever-increas-ing scale to Russia, the Pacific, the Middle East and China, the final outcome of this conflict may be decided.” Air Nash stressed “ the fullest and fairest consideration ” which New Zealand’s own needs and those of the Pacific territories she had undertaken to protect had at all times received. Yet, while the loss of the last remaining basis of future offensive action in- the South-west Pacific would mean a disastrous and even fatal setback to the United Nations’ strategy, he and the New Zealand people were equally convinced that their future safety was no less vitally dependent on Russia’s capacity for continued resistance iu Europe, on the ability of the Allies to hold Egypt and destroy Eield-Marshal Rommel’s forces, on the success with which China could maintain her fight, on the future role of India, on the outcome of the effort td meet the submarine menace in the Atlantic, and, above all, on the continuing security of Britain herself., “We must therefore,” he said, “ prepare for any and every eventuality and serve where the need is greatest. In the Pacific our first immediate objective must be supremacy in the air and on the sea.” Finally, Air Nash appealed for the transformation of the United Nations into a symbol of real and vital unity, and suggested the setting up now of a world reconstruction council for mapping out a positive programme for carrying on a world of peace. The council should have subsidiary councils organised on a regional basis. The job of these councils, he explained, would be to spread the right material in the right place, “ to readjust stock positions, to deal with the problem of any surplus after the war, and arrange for a continuance of a world lease-lend procedure that will enable plant and equipment and raw materials to be transferred to countries where the need is greatest, and generally to see that commodities and production facilities are made available according to the capacity to produce on the one hand and the relative need on the other.” Regarding the diversity of the United Nations’ effprts politically, economically, and socially, Air Nash said: “ The differences which decide free nations are of small consequence compared with the basic identity of purpose which unites them. If we recognise this,-we recognise the fact that we are now entering into- a new phase of history. For the peace we earnestly hope for, let ns arm ourselves just as thoroughly as we have armed for war.”