The Grey River Argus FRIDAY, November 27, 1942. NEW LINKS WITH AMERICA.

Grey River Argus, 27 November 1942, Page 4

The Grey River Argus FRIDAY, November 27, 1942. NEW LINKS WITH AMERICA.

People of the North, far more than those of the South Island have been brought during the past year of warfare into direct contact with many thousands of Americans who are engaged in the campaign aglainst the Japanese in the South Pacific. This association, under such trying and extraordinary circumstances, is destined to leave a deep and lasting impression alike upon New Zealanders and Americans. It already has familiarised us ■with, not a few American customs, and. if in the stress of war, there is vet little formal recognition

of American anniversaries, there certainly is a general appreciation of the service done by Ameri-

can forces in keeping from our shores an enemy from whom, we could expect scant consideration The announcement that Admiral Halsey is about to come to New Zealand emphasises the fact that this country is at.present providing the base for the American, naval forces in the South Pacific, and it may be anticipated that in the years to come there may remain an arrangement whereby the protection at present enjoyed Avill not be lost, hut ivill become potentially available in’ case of need. News of the successive contingents of marines, soldiers and seamen from the United States who have come to New Zealand shows that they all. have evinced the greatest interest, in this country, and have quickly Avon the confidence and regard of its people. In many respects young Americans are akin to the inhabitants of these southern

dominions, their parents or grant

parents having come from Euro(pean. homelands, SO' that, while

large new cities of great dimensions are as characteristic of Amerio'a as they are comparatively lacking here, the outlook of the people in each case is still that, of relative newcomers in their respective countries. It may, of course, be pointed out that politically differences exist, American constitutional tradition being decidedly modern in comparison with British usage; but new settlement and the breaking in of new country, are as familiar to Americans ;as they' are to New Zealanders and Australians, and the habits thus engendered fit them for some of the modern forms of warfare, calling for initiative in a peculiar manner,. In the field of industrialism, of course, the. Americans are to-day in the lead, and evidence 'of this has been afforded in the magnificent equipment brought b'y them to the Pacific and other war fronts. Long before this war, far-sighted observers foresaw that in the Pacific, when the day ■of reckoning came, it would be upon the United States that British communities would largely have to rely for their defence, and the actual facts to-day demonstrate that this dependence will not disappear with the conclusion of this war. Yet the Dominions are learning from America another lesson, and it is to emulate the policy of that country last century in hastened strength and development by means of immigration and industrial expansion. At the present time, under the leased end system, we are afforded by the United States no little iof our war material, and after the war we must look in the same direction for much more of the capital and initiative in economic development than we have yet secured. The bonds of association being forged in the fires of war by the United Nations around the Pacific tvill long outlast the war and shape the future of them all.