WAR SITUATION

Grey River Argus, 17 September 1941, Page 4

WAR SITUATION

MR. FRASER’S EXPRESSIONS Pacific Position Grave GERMANS’ RISK IN RUSSIA [Per Press Association! WELLINGTON, Sept. 16. The capital citv welcomed The Rt Hon. P. Fraser hom e from his mission abroad, not only as Prime Min-1 ister, but also as a Wellington citizen and the representative of a City constituency. This evening a civic reception was tendered him in the Town Hall. The Town Hall was more than half full for the occasion. The Mayor, Mr Hislop, presided. In his address. Mr Fraser, who was received with prolonged an* plause, dealt with different aspects of his mission. He spoke in particular of his visits to the New Zealand bovs who are serving overseas, and he dealt also with the Pacific situaon the platform Included Mrs Fraser,. Hon. W , Nash and M rs Nash, Mr S. G. Holland (Opposition Leader), Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, Hon. A. Hamilton. Commodore Parry, Major-General E. Puttick, Air Commodore H. W. L. Saunders, Sir HBatterbee, Mr Riddell Hon. H. G. R. Mason, Hon. R. Semple, ITon. W. L. Parry, Hon. F. Jones, Hon. P. C. Webb. Hon. P. K. Paikea Hon. A IL Nordmeyer, Hon. D. G. Sullivan, Hon H T. Armstrong, Hon. J. G. Barclay, the Citv Councillors and representative citizens. When he rose to reply at the civic reception tendered him to-mght at the Wellington Town Hall, the PrimMinister, Rt. Hon. P Fraser, was received with prolonged applause. He expressed his thanks to Mayor H lop, Hon. W Nash and Mr b. G. Holland, for their welcome home. He also thanked those who had carried on in his absence in the important work of government. Telling of his visit to the New Zealand soldiers in the Middle East, Mr Fraser said that he did not hear from a wounded soldier or a fit soldier a single complaint. In a message received on Sunday, General Wavell had said that there never was division that showed better discipline than the New Zealanders showed. That, Mr Fraser said, could not have been' discipline forced on them. Lt was intelligent, self-imposed discipline, with splendid co-operation between officers and men. Our troops were not only not excelled in Greece and in Crete, but also they were not excelled in the history of miUtary operations. Their deeds would shine in history, and the ane’ent glory or Greece would have added to it a fresn lasting lustre through the deeds or the New Zealand boys. Mr Fraser said we could say that no other Dominion had excelled New Zealand, eitlher in the promptitude with which it stepped into the war effort, or in the energy with which it had carried it on. ' “I don’t want to say that we can-; not do more,” Mr Fraser continued, ‘ because, as long as there is any energy we cun use, we can still ao better. But our efforts are apprnciated, and valued, by the Churchill War Cabinet, and by the Government and the whole population. What we have done heYe is known and appreciated. Mr Fraser said that he had fnade ft his special business to inquire ink the position of the prisoners of war. Parcels being made up by hundreds of women workers in London were being sent into the prison camps reI gularlv through the International Red Cross in Geneva. He had made it plain, in Britain that the Maori, and Pakel.a in New Zealand were brothers, and no distinction was being made in the treatment of both as prisoners of war. Inquiries showed, he added, thst the food and the parcels sent were reaching the prisoners of war.

Referring to the spirit of the people of Britain, Mr Fraser said that there was no fear, no dismay, no weakening and n o sign of retreat from the nosition that had been taken U p—that there could be no halt till all that Nazism and Fascism stand for was destroyed completely. In Crete, said Mr Fraser, the New Zealand force accounted for 80 per cent, of the parachute troops landed. Subseauently, at the request of the War Office, Brigadier Inglis was sent to Britain to explain how this had been done, and to-day, Britain felt confident that it would be possible to deal effectively with the parachute menace. The situation in the Pacific, said the Prime Minister, was still grave. The conversations in Washington did not seem to be shaping as well as might be hoped: and. so far from it being time for New Zealand to slacken its efforts, it was time, if it was humanly possible, Ito strengthen those efforts. In Britain he had discussed measures for the strengthening of the Dominion’s defences. Hon. Mr Semple in Australia and Rt. Hon. Mr Coates and Mr Langstone in the United States, had done remarkably fine work in a similar direction, so it could be said that the Government was doing all that was humanly possible.

Mr Fraser said that he had no doubt of the anxietv of the British and United States Government to give every possible assistance to Russia. He believed that, even .if the Russians had to retreat from Kiev and from Leningrad and Moscow, so lonp- as they maintained their line intact, Hitler was already beaten. This view was held authoritatively in Britain. If trouble, he said, did come, and if our shores were attacked, and if we had to rally to the defence of our own country here, then all he could ask and prav for was that we in this country would prove worthy ot the brave boys on land, sea and air, who had gone from our shores, and were fighting for us.

CONGRATULATIONS OF COLLEAGUES WELLINGTON. Sept. 16. At the caucus of the Parliamentary Labour Party, at Wellington to-dav, the following resolution was passed: “That this caucus extends a hearty welcome to its leader, the Prime Minister, and congratulates him on his magnificent work in the Middle East, United Kingdom and United States, and affirms its determination under his leadership, to carrv on the work of the party and the Dominion until victory is achieved, and the present conflict resolved in the triumph of the peoples in the democratic countries of the world.” A further resolution was passed by the caucus expressing s’neere appreciation of the work of Mr' Nash as acting-leader of the Parliamentary Labour Party during the absence of Mr Fraser.