From Week to Week

Grey River Argus, 8 October 1941, Page 7

From Week to Week

(By

H. Winston Rhodes)

New Zealand's Aid to Russia: It cannot be repeated too often that most New Zealanders find it difficult to think in terms of the Pacific. We shall not emerge as a nation until we are able to examine world problems with the minds of men and women who have fully absorbed their background and are capable of standing erect.

Our dependence on the ideas andactions of people born in Europe is very marked at the present moment when every progressive is clamouring for more effective help for the Soviet Union. With slavish but wellmeaning enthusiasm we urge the necessity of opening a new front in the west of Europe. We talk of increasing supplies pf war materials going to the Soviet Union. Always we tend to examine the situation from the points of view of progressives in Britain.

I do not wish to be misinterpreted. I believe these proposals are wise and necessary and should be supported by all New Zealanders who desire the destruction of fascism and the closest possible relations with the Soviet Union, but they are proposals which can be supported most effectively by the people of Britain land America.

All over New Zealand societies for closer relations with the Soviet Union are being formed. Quite clearly there is among the majority of the people the earnest wish not only that cultural ajid economic relations should be fostered in order to arrive at a closer and more sympathetic understanding of each other’s social aims, but also that New Zealand should offer the maximum amount of help to the people of the Soviet Union.

As New Zealanders we cannot send aeroplanes we cannot send tanks, we cannot send oil or rubber. We can and sho.uld send ambulances and medical supplies as a gesture of sympathy and friendship. We can and should send primary produce. We can and should exchange diplomatic representatives. But the most effective help that New Zealand can give to the Soviet Union is the help which concerns Asiatic Russia and the Red Army on the Eastern borders.

The Soviet Union Via China: We have been reminded a thousand times that New Zealand is a small country, that its voice in world affairs is neither large nor influential. Nevertheless it is not so long ago that Mr Jordan made diplomatic history by co-operating with the Soviet Union at a meeting of the League of Nations. What is required to-day is the fullest co-operation with the Soviet Union in Pacific diplomacy.

Australia and New Zealand... can give considerable help to- the Soviet Union in the struggle against fascism if their attention is fixed on the Manchukuo border and the manoeuvres of the third partner in the Axis.

Although the Soviet Union is not at present forced to fight a war on two fronts and although her Eastern army is independent from the point of view of reserves, supplies and organisation, nonetheless it is apparent that any threat from the east is full of dangerous possibilities.

Should Japan at any stage during the war decide to link her fortunes more closely with those of her partners, a considerable diversion of effort would be imposed upon Britain, America and the Soviet Union. For this reason any diplomatic activity which leads the rulers of Japan to the conclusion that a more aggressive policy in the Pacific would meet with- a measure of success is certain to play into the hands of Hitler.

The recent exposure by newspapers in the Dutch East Indies of the failuse of Britain and America to clarify their policy towards that country suggests that anti-Axis diplomacy is by no means fully coordinated. It is disturbing to notice that there is still insufficient recognition of the fact that the people of China are resisting an invasion which is closely linked to invasions which have taken place elsewhere. The speed with which the Soviet; Union can turn its own successful resistance to the Nazi invaders into counter-attack and final victory depends, at least in part, upon the maintenance of peace on the Manchukuo border. And this partly depends upon China’s ability to keep the Japanese invaders busy.

The most effective method for Australia and New Zealand to alopt in order to help the Soviet Union is a method which they should adopt for its own sake. It is to work for increased help to China and for the encouragement of the fullest measure of Chinese democracy. It is to follow a diplomatic policy which will convince the Japanese that neither Continental nor southward aggression will meet with anything but the most resolute hostility.

New Zealanders must learn to think in terms of the Pacific. They should help the Soviet Union by all the direct means in their .power, but they must realise sooner or later that the Soviet Union borders the Pacific Ocean, and New Zealand can' and should collaborate with all countries of the Pacific willing to work for peace and democracy. The exchange of diplomatic representatives between the Soviet Union and New Zealand would help to promote such collaboration. It would help to ensure the complete, co-ordination of anti-Axis diplomacy.