NOT DISLOYAL

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24189, 3 February 1942, Page 5

NOT DISLOYAL

AUSTRALIAN ATTITUDE

STATEMENTS REFUTED (Reed. 11.10 p.m.) MELBOURNE, Feb. 2 Vigorously refuting statements that his Government or Australians generally were lacking in complete loyalty toward Britain, Mr. Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia, before leaving for Canberra to-day, said that since the war began nothing had been said or done which had for its purpose anything but the consolidation of the fighting power of Britain and Australia. "I am amazed and shocked at the allegations of doubts regarding the complete unity of the whole of the Australian and British peoples, and what is true of the peoples is true of the Government. It has always been the Eolicy of the enemy to drive a wedge etween the Motherland and the Dominions. No Australian and no Britisher would be a party, to such an obvious device. Loyalty now requires works, not words. All that the Government has done has been to ask that in the conduct of the Pacific war there should be a Pacific War Council and that in respect to total war there should be scope for Australia's voice being heard when the Imperial War Cabinet is making important decisions. I am unable to discover any disloyalty to our Empire or to our Allies in projects of that kind."

RAIDS ON MALTA

LONDON, Feb. 2 Malta had nine air-raid alerts on Sunday, and this makes the total score for January 263 alerts.