AUSTRALIA’S REQUEST FOR PACIFIC PACT SAID TO BE PREPARED

Grey River Argus, 25 March 1949, Page 3

AUSTRALIA’S REQUEST FOR PACIFIC PACT SAID TO BE PREPARED

CANBERRA, March 24 It is believed that the Minister of External Affairs, Dr H. V. Evatt, and the Secretary of the Defence Department, Sir Frederick Shedden, will visit Washington soon for special defence talks. They are expected to discuss American co-operation in the proposed Pacific pact, which the Australian Government is anxious _to promote, any American participation in the rocket range experiments in Australia. The Primo Minister, Mr Chifley. declined to comment on these reports “at this stage.’’ Dr Evatt and Sir Frederick Shedden are at present in London According to a London message, the Foreign Office Undersecretary, Mr C. P. Mayhew, answering a House of Commons question, said that no consultation concerning a Pactific pact had been arranged.