NO TIME TO RELAX

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 25 January 1944, Page 4

NO TIME TO RELAX

MAXIMUM WAR EFFORT EUROPEAN CAMPAIGN REACHING CLIMAX Wellington, This Day. War was not a trade among the United Nations, and it was understandable that, with the passing of the perilous years, there should be a tendency for the war effort to slow up. but that must not be allowed lo happen, said Mr 1. F. L. Elliot, chairman of the British Ministry of Supply mission in India, who recently visited New Zealand with members of the mission, in an address on the part New Zealand had played in the war, and the part she still had to play. Mr Elliot reviewed the principles of and the composition of the mission, which had come into being in the days of dire peril after Dunkirk, when the possibility had to be faced that communication with the Motherland might be severed, and when it w&s vitally important to create a self-supporting supply area from the Middle East to the Pacific in order to save shipping space. It was through this machinery that new munition industries were created in New Zealand as in other countries within the compass of the mission. New Zealand had played a very worthy part in that industry, which was for her a somewhat unusual field of production, but the results had been most gratifying. Though her needs great when peril threatened her as elsewhere in the Empire, she had not hesitated in making a full contribution. Assistance had come later, and there was clear evidence of a marked change in the trend of the war.

The war in Europe was reaching a climax. The war in the Pacific, however, had a long way to go yet. It was obvious that 'there was no cause for casing off, said Mr Elliot. Such an attitude would only lead to the sacrificing of countless thousands of lives that might otherwise be saved. “In Britain to-day all who can work are working long hours and under much different conditions from those you enjoy in New Zealand,” he said. “We may be round the bend and approaching the straight,- but there may be other bends ahead. There certainly are in the Pacific war. There are great operations ahead requiring the maximum supply of equipment.”

There were many good reasons why Major-General Pakenham-Walsh and ne paid their visit to Australia and New Zealand. The most important was the need for assistance to support Admiral Mountbatten. Assistance would also be given to Australia and New Zealand as the bases in the South-West, Pacific, but the mission was dependent on those countries for some classes of supplies. It was no time to relax and be content with what had been achieved, said Mr Elliot. There must be no risk of any failure in the flood of food from New Zealand to the maximum extent possible, both for the pressing needs of the mission, and to help to feed starving Europe. There must be no risk of failure in the supplies to the armies of the United Nations, and to the services on which they were dependent.