MR DUFF COOPER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24773, 25 November 1941, Page 6

MR DUFF COOPER

TALKS WITH GOVERNMENT COMPLETE AGREEMENT PACIFIC DEFENCE QUESTIONS (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 24. Mr Duff Cooper held a conference with the New Zealand Government today. In a subsequent interview, Mr Duff Cooper, who expressed satisfaction with the results of his visit to New Zealand, said that an exchange of views had taken place between the Ministry and himself and that he and '-the Ministers present had been in complete agreement. Replying to an inquiry whether there had been any further developments in connection with the proposal that Britain should be represented by a resident Minister in the Pacific area, Mr Duff Cooper said he had investigated this question and submitted a report to the British Government. "As Mr Churchill has already said, Britain is definitely 100 per cent, behind America in the Pacific." said Mr Duff Cooper, when asked if he was able to discuss the question of British aid in the event of the United States becoming involved in war in the Pacific. There was, hs added, complete trust between the Governments of the two countries and no secrets as between one nation and the other. The United States had already been given the use of bases in the Atlantic, and bases would also bs made available in the Pacific if required. They might not be required, however, because America had already developed bases in its own territories. Mr Duff Cooper will leave Wellington to-morrow morning by car for Auckland.