“LITTLE WARS”

Grey River Argus, 22 December 1943, Page 3

“LITTLE WARS”

NUISANCE IN N.Z. Prime Minister’s Warning F.A. WELLINGTON, Dec. 21. Speaking at the State luncheon to Hon. T. G. D'Alton, Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand, the Prime Minister, Mr. Eraser, said that Australia had been troubled with little internal wars, just as New Zealand was threatened with them at present. -Like other countries New Zealand had had to adopt stabilisation, and everyone was in favour of stabilisation, except when they were intimately concerned, and then they cooled off, and wanted to condemn it, and there were threats or restriction of production, threatened stoppages of work, and so on. '“Well,” continued Mr. Fraser, “‘We don’t want internal wars, even small ones, a's well as external wars. 1 would like to strike this note, not of pessimism, but oi warning to our people.” He said the year 1943 had been a wonderful year, with some successes that he, at least, had not thought possible; but 1944 was destined to be a more notable and decisive year. It would, he hoped, advance the democratic nations' mucii closer to victory. But that victory, he added, was not round the corner. It had got to be fought for, and worked tor, and any person who did not do ms very best was letting down the fighting forces and betraying the country. He would be playing the game of the Nazis, Fascists, and the Japanese also. New Zealand had been solid, and had done a good job, and if the country failed now, it would be letting down the cause of humanity. But that was not going to happen in New Zealand. Mr. Fraser said that there was a stern job ahead. It had Icen announced, quite openly, that a sec' ond front was to be established in the west .of Europe. Anybocty who. thought at all must .realise that that would mean an enormous sacrifice, and our people, at this season of the year and as the new year dawned, must gird themselves once more to face even a harder period. If victorv were going to be achieved, the nation must stand solid and united. Referring to the war in the Pacific, Mr. Fraser said that, at the moment, the United Nations were only in the ante-room of the Pacific. Only the prelude had been reached. Those who thought that the v were helping the country by interferring with its economic life in any way, or oy spreading distrust among the people in regard to the country’s financial stability, were* also acting detrimentally to the war effort.