Australian Step Towards Nationhood

Northern Advocate, 24 December 1941, Page 4

Australian Step Towards Nationhood

(Rec. 2.30 p.m.) 1 CANBERRA, This Day

The Australian War Council is greatly interested in the meeting of President Roosevelt and Mr Churchill at Washington and the oportunity availed of by the Australian Prime Minister (Mr Curtin) to send a personal cablegram to them setting out the Australian views on the course of Allied strategy in the Pacific. The fact that Mr Curtin approached the President and Mr Churchill direct instead cf through the customary British channels is regarded here as another indication of the development of Australian nationhood. The cablegrams set out the Australian Government’s conception o£.„the whole strategic problem in the Pacific and of every country with which Japan is waging war.

The Tokic radio said Mr Churchill’s arrival in Washington was an eloquent indication of how Britain had been shocked by the simultaneous defeats of the Bi'itish and Amercan navies in the Far East. Mr Churchill’s mission was an indication of another frantic British appeal for increaesd aid from the United States.