COMMONWEALTH AND DEFENCE: LONDON TALKS

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 December 1950, Page 3

COMMONWEALTH AND DEFENCE: LONDON TALKS

SYDNEY, December 28.—The New ( Zealand Prime Minister (Mr Holland) said today that one purpose of the British Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference in London would be to allocate to member countries their respective defence responsibilities in potential war theatres. The Australian Prime Minister (Mr. Menzies), who left Australia for London last Friday, decfined to discuss the nature of the conference. ' “A Pacific Pact without the membership of the United States, the United Kingdom, and India would be meaningless,” said Mr Holland today. “The New Zealand Government has been advocating for a considerable time that the countries of the Pacific opposed to, Communism should band together in common defence measures along the lines of and as corollary to the Atlantic Pact.”

He added that there was a constant interchange of opinion between Australia and New Zealand at top Government and service level and that during recent months there had been an intensification of these exchanges. Mr Holland said that while in Britain he would place large orders for the supply of war equipment for the armed services. Substantial orders for jet planes had already been placed. , . A broadcast from the New Zealand national stations tonight stated that in his interview Mr Holland said New Zealand intended to use £80,000,000 of the London reserves as a national defence fund. It was intended to use this money to stockpile military equipment.