PACIFIC AVIATION

Evening Star, Issue 25173, 12 May 1944, Page 2

PACIFIC AVIATION

NEW ZEALAND'S CLAIMS ADVANCED MR FRASER AT PREMIERS* CONFERENCE (N.Z. P. A. Special Correspondent.) (Rec. 9.50 a.m.) LONDON, May 11. The development of British aviation in the Pacific, not in competition with tho United States, but after consultations with the Americans, was very strongly urged by Mr Peter Fraser at the Prime Minister's conference, it is understood. Mr Fraser, who had detailed plans for every possible post-war Pacific air route worked out for him by experts before he left New Zealand, put before the conference proposals for at least two transpacific routes_ that could be well developed by Britain. He stressed New Zealand's desire to be associated in every way with the development of these routes; expressing the opinion that if an international scheme should be impossible then there should he adequate British development. He was no doubt bearing in mind that New Zealand would finish the war with a large body of highly skilled airmen (which would be proportionately greater than in other countries), who obviously would have excellent qualifications to run services both from New Zealand to the Pacific Islands and to the American Continent.

On the question of shipping Mr Fraser put forward a scheme for New Zealand to have as large a share as possible of shipping facilities in the Pacific and, of course, New Zealand waters. This session of the conference was particularly important to New Zealand, and Mr Fraser made a point that she must not be isolated from the rest of. the world by any lack of communications. Australia, it is understood, is not so vitally concerned with transpacific air routes, because she will re-establish the link with Britain via India, Singapore, and the Dutch East Indies. A very firm impression of his ability as a statesman, his shrewdness, farsighted outlook, and his well-informed mind has been made, it is understood, by Mr Fraser on the conference. He has, it is believed, the same outspoken and forthright manner in conference as Mr Churchill and in talks, where no punches are pulled and no agreement reached until after the frankest discussion Mr Fraser, with a long experience of trade union bargaining behind him, has taken his full share, impressing Mr Churchill, and particularly Field Marshal Smuts. It has been observed that Mr Fraser on the public platform has been a very different person from what he is in the conference room.. While a somewhat dull atmosphere may sometimes pervade his public utterances and his long sentences, studded with parentheses between parentheses, which has drawn the comment in the English newspapers that "he is a speaker rather than an orator," he promotes a decidedly different atmosphere at the conference table. Yet, despite the atmosphere of his public utterances, his observations have been widely publicised, and he has been quoted frequently in connection with Commonwealth relations.