Anzacs Will Fight Together When Time Ripe

Northern Advocate, 9 April 1943, Page 6

Anzacs Will Fight Together When Time Ripe

CANBERRA, This Day.

New Zealanders regretted that for strategical purposes Australia and New Zealand had been separated in South-west Pacific and South Pacific areas, said the New Zealand High Commissioner (Mr Berendsen), in a national broadcast last night. “It was our wish, as I understand it was yours, that we should be in the same area under the same command," said Mr Berendsen. “We felt, as we believe you feel, that although your problems in Australia are of course larger and more complex than ours in New Zealand, nevertheless in essence they are identical. Like Good Partners “However, those responsible for global strategy decided otherwise, and, as good partners in a joint undertaking fraught with most vital consequences, both Australia and New Zealand had agreed to sink their individual views and make the best of the arrangement that had been estab lished.” Mr Berendsen said there was still room for close consultation and collaboration, and lie predicted that when the time came to push the Japanese back, Australians and New Zealanders would be fighting as they liked to fight—side by side. New Zealanders claimed that their own troops were as good as the Australians, and no prouder boast could be made. Like Australia, New Zealand had sent troops abroad, and was providing large quantities of supplies in many shapes and forms for the Allied forces in the South and South-west Pacific and elsewhere.