“COMPLETE TRUST”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20623, 26 November 1941, Page 4

“COMPLETE TRUST”

BRITAIN AND AMERICA USE OF PACIFIC BASES (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. A conference with the New Zealand Government was held on Monday by Mr. A. Duff Cooper, a member of the British Cabinet, who is on a special mission to the Far East. Replying to an inquiry whether there had been any further developments in connection with the proposal that Britain should be represented by a resident Minister in the Pacific area, Mr. Duff Cooper said he had investigated this question and submitted a report to the British Government. !

“As Mr. Churchill has already said, Britain is definitely 100 per cent behind America in the Pacific,” said Mr. Duff Cooper, when asked if he was able to discuss the question of British aid to America in the event of the United States becoming involved in war in the Pacific. There was, he added, complete trust between the Governments of the two countries and no secrets as between one nation and the other.

The United States had already been given the use of bases in the Atlantic and bases would also be made available in the Pacific if required. However, they might not be required, because America had already developed bases in its own territories.