THE OTAGO DAILY NEWS Friday, January 30, 1942. PLANNING THE WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24828, 30 January 1942, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY NEWS Friday, January 30, 1942. PLANNING THE WAR

The willing compliance of the British Government with the request of the Australian Prime Minister for direct Commonwealth representation on the War Cabinet —a request which the New Zealand Prime Minister has supported with a view to representation by this Dominion—is not unexpected. In press and Parliament over a number of months prior to the extension of war to the Pacific, it had been urged that the dominions should have a direct voice in the conduct of the war. The principal deterrent to the earlier establishment of an Imperial War Cabinet, or to the accrediting of dominion representatives to the British War Cabinet, was the inability of the dominions to agree on the desirability of the adoption of this course. Though he has evidently changed his view, to conform with that of the Prime Minister in Australia, Mr Fraser until recently was not an advocate of constant dominion representation at councils in Downing street. Indeed, it is still far from clear that the dominions, other than Australia and New Zealand, wish for such representation, and they may even not avail themselves of the opportunity of obtaining it. Coincidently with the appointment to London of a suitable War Cabinet representative, the dominions will also be required, in the terms of Mr Churchill's outline, to select representatives on a Pacific War Council, the venue of which has still to be selected. In view of the acceptance by the United States of responsibility of command in what is designated the "Anzac Area"—the eastern approaches to Australia and New Zealand—it would be natural that these dominions should favour this council functioning from Washington. If President Roosevelt agrees to that suggestion, New Zealand may be regarded as reasonably fortunate in having a representative to hand, in the person of Mr Nash, who is believed to be now at Washington. But this cannot obviate another difficulty, that a New Zealand representative of at least equal authority, able to make decisions without prolonged and tedious communication with his Government at home, will be required to sit in London with the War Cabinet. As to the degree to which the Supreme Commander in the Western Pacific, General Wavell, will be answerable to the joint Anglo-Allied control, which for practical purposes will be reposed finally in President Roosevelt and Mr Churchill and their advisers, to the British War Council, and to the Pacific War Council respectively, there is no informa- ■ tiom Mr Churchill has stated that General Wavell will not be pursued with frequent instructions. That is certainly reassuring. But the fact remains that, responding to a.request from Australia and New Zealand, the British Government has consented greatly to complicate the administrative machinery for the planning of war strategy. 'lt was suggested on the authority of the Washington correspondent of the New York Times in December last that Great Britain and the United States both would have preferred that the Empire should act as one unit in Anglo-American plans for co-operation. This is still possible, but in recognising the urgings of the dominions for direct consultation at both London and Washington the British and American Governments have inevitably opened the way for the creation of duplication, over-elaboration and the possibility of confusion in the direction of the war.