Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1942. ANZAC EFFORT.

Greymouth Evening Star, 24 February 1942, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. AND BRUNNERTON ADVOCATE. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1942. ANZAC EFFORT.

JT is becoming a common occurrence, that. New Zealanders have to rely upon outside sources for news of happenings which vitally concern the Dominion. The recent arrival of units of the United States Fleet at Wellington was first announced from London, ' while it has been left to Sydney to inform New Zealanders that a special mission has reached there from the Dominion. It is readily understood that secrecy was necessary while the members were en route, but their arrival was presumably known by the authorities in New Zealand as soon as the journey was completed. Tn Australian minds, evidently, the need for secrecy was then ended. Divergent ideas obviously prevail regarding the type of information likely to be of value to the enemy. Whether the New Zealand censorship is adopting a too-cautious policy is a matter of opinion, but the fact remains that it is being “scooped” fairly frequently. Tf an almostcomplete blackout of news is so essential, it would appear that a protest to London and Sydney would be in order. However, the announcement that Messrs Sullivan, Coates, and representatives of the fighting Services are now in Australia, is evidence demonstrating that the New Zealapd Government is aware of the need for cooperating with the Commonwealth, to ensure that the mostsatisfactory measures must be adopted for a co-ordination of efforts to combat the Japanese menace. It may well be that the despatch of the mission across the

Tasman is one of the results of the secret discussion which took place in Parliament recently, on the memorandum submitted to the Government by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr. Holland); but the question of credit is immaterial; when the universal desire is to put forth the maximum effort so that the defences of New Zealand may he strengthened to such an extent that the enemy will think twice before attempting a conquest.

That such a happy state. of affairs has not yet been reached is illustrated by a report from Washington, giving an outline of a broadcast made by Mr. Nash, in the course of which the New Zealand Minister urged that the United States should send more aircraft, tanks,-and war equipment to the Dominion, on the ground that the war in the Pacific will be long and hard, and that, from the general strategic viewpoint, the successful defence of New Zealand is of vital importance. Speaking in Sydney, Mr. Coates said that the present threat to Australia is equally a threat to New Zealand. That should be obvious to the people of the Dominion, but it is doubtful whether, to quote Mr. Coates, “the Japanese attack on Darwin could not have had a more-profound effect on the New Zealand people if it had been part of New Zealand that had been bombed.” Darwin is a long way from, say, Wellington, and the fact that Japanese bombers callously ignored the Red Cross and bombed a hospital ship, has not had one-quarter of the effect upon New Zealanders that would be produced by the dropping of a few bombs on a. similar target in Dominion waters. After all. life goes on in much the normal way in New Zealand. The great majority of the people still enjoy their sport and amusements, and actual realisation of the full meaning of war is, so far, confined mainly to the relations of those men overseas whose names are unfortunately included in the casualty lists. Credit is due to those men,—and women, —who volunteered for service in various defence organisations, but there was a noticeable increase in registrations when the compulsory provisions were announced. There are still many avenues, industrial and otherwise, in which the war effort may be implemented. As Mr. Coates said, “It is the duty of all of us to get into line, and back up our national leaders to the utmost.” The hope may be earnestly expressed, that the mission Io Australia will be productive in full measure of the desired results, and that the efforts being made by Mr. Nash in the United States will be similarly successful.