FIRST OF TALKS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21548, 30 October 1944, Page 2

FIRST OF TALKS

N.Z.—AUSTRALIA DELEGATION ARRIVES BROAD ISSUES OF POLICY (P.A.) AUCKLAND, Oct. 30. Members of the Australian Government delegation to New Zealand led by Mr. F. M. Fordo, deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for the Army, and Dr. 11. V. Evatt, Minister for External Affairs, arrived by flying boat from Sydney on Saturday. They will confer with the New Zealand Government representatives in the first of the talks between the two countries arranged under the terms of the New Zealand-Australia agreement of January, and will be in the Dominion for about three weeks. Other members of the party were Mr. A. V. Smith, secretary of the Department of Supply and Shipping, Mr. F. R. Sinclair, secretary of the Army Department, Dr. J. W. Burton, Messrs W. D. Forsyth and P. Hasluck, of the Commonwealth Department of External Affairs, and Mr. K. C. Hardie. secretary to Mr. Forde. The Australian delegation was accompanied by Mr. J. G. Barclay. New Zealand High Commissioner in Australia, who will take part in the discussions in Wellington. Mesdames Forde. Evatt and Barclay have accompanied their husbands. The delegation was officially met by the Minister of Labour, the Hon. P. C. Webb, and Mr. J. W. Heenan, Under-Secretary for Internal Affairs, on behalf of the New Zealand Government. The Mayor, Mr. J. A. C. Allum, and the chairman of the Auckland Harbour Board. Mr. Prater, also welcomed the visitors.

The official Australian party remained in Auckland on Saturday night and left for Rotorua, where they were given a Maori reception yesterday morning. Mr. Barclay stayed in Auckland for the week-end and will travel to Wellington to-day. Tire broad issues of policy affecting the relations between New Zealand and Australia would be discussed in the conference in Wellington, said Mr. Forde. The conference was the first ol' those to be held under the Canberra agreement between the Dominion and Australia, and future conferences were to be held at least twice a year, if possible alternately in Wellington and Canberra. Hard Fighting Ahead

“The Japanese empire will not be defeated easily, despite the great successes which have recently been achieved in the Philippines,” Mr. Forde said. "There will be much hard fighting before final victory is won and we in Australia have prepared for a considerable period of war ahead. However, we have passed the stage in the Pacific where we are merely required to defend ourselves.” It was right that Australia and New Zealand, as two units of the British Empire closely associated, should meet together to plan, for the future, not only for defence but for problems that the post-war period would bring. “I am very glad to be able to say that the Government and people of New Zealand have always given magnificent co-operation to Australia and particularly during the war,” Mr. Forde added.

He paid a tribute to the valour and tenacity of New Zealand’s fighting forces on their many battlefronts and also to the people of New Zealand for their great effort on the home front. Not only had New Zealand been able to keep a force in Italy, but it had had troops in the battle in the Pacific, where their operations had been conspicuously successful. In the skies over Britain and now over the Eui'ooean battlefront Australian and New Zealand airmen had fought and were fighting side by side, and they formed a considerable proportion of the Royal Air Force. Home Front Problems

“On the home front in New Zealand I am informed that your problems have been very much the same as ours,” Mr. Forde continued. “We are required not only to feed and service our own forces in. the Pacific, but the forces of our allies as well and to send considerable supplies of food to Great Britain. This had caused a great deal of hardship and inconvenience at home, which the peoples of both nations have borne magnificently. The political and common ties between New Zealand and Australia have been strengthened during the war, and I believe it is to our mutual advantage that we should continue to strengthen further these connections.” Australia was still maintaining its war effort at its maximum and the Government was determined to maintain the fighting forces at the maximum operational strength of -which the nation was capable. -Until recently the Australian Army had performed most of the land fighting in the southwest Pacific area, and in the future it would take part in campaigns of equal if not greater importance than ?nv in which they had already participated. Of Australia’s total population of 7.300,000, enlistments in the fighting forces were 963,000 men in September, and Australians had fought on almost every world battlefront.

Mr. Forde paid a tribute to the work of New Zealand’s High Commissioner in Australia, Mr. Barclay, whom he described as a worthy successor to Mr. C. A. Berendsen and as one of the most popular representatives in Canberra. His appointment had done much to further New Zea-land-Australian relations, and they would be further strengthened by the conferences planned.