COMMON AIM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24915, 14 May 1942, Page 4

COMMON AIM

DESTRUCTION OF ENEMY DOMINION AND AUSTRALIA (Special) WELLINGTON, May 13. “To the last man and to our last ounce of energy we must destroy the Japanese Navy and the Japanese Army, or we will never know the meaning of peace. We have got to kill them. It is of no use looking at it in any other way,” said Mr J. G. Coates, a member of the War Cabinet, when speaking at a luncheon held by the Wellington branch of the A.I.F. Association of Ex-servicemen. “All Australians realise that it is a common cause,” said Mr Coates. “We cannot draw the line between Australia and New Zealand, and so far as warmth of feeling is concerned —I might almost say affection —there is nothing anybody can do that will separate Australia and New Zealand. That is settled and final. There is no difference of opinion as to the course we must take, the course we intend to take, and the objective we are after.. We see it that way, and by ‘we’ I mean Australia and New Zealand. “ I do not suppose anybody but Australiansor New Zealanders, born of the soil of these two countries, can really know the deep feeling which exists between our peoples. This country is predominantly British —the basis of our stock—-and it is the same in Australia. It is difficult to place in words exactly what that sentiment means. “We have tremendous confidence in the foresight, energy and long-sighted calculations of Australia.-. Perhaps the word ‘Anzac’ is nearest to the expression in language of the spirit born of common privations, but it is even deeper than that. It is the New Zealander’s wish and desire to be alongside Australia if trouble comes her way. and we have the feeling that if trouble comes our way then the first we would look to would be Australia, and we know the call would be answered. “ One reason, but not the only one, for our depth of feeling is that we are isolated from the rest of the world,” Mr Coates said. “At heart Australia and New Zealand think together, and, in spite of what authorities who do not understand our two countries say, they cannot lock us into watertight compartments. There must be a. close alliance between Australia and New Zealand—nothing else. “ Gallipoli was the beginning of that expression of feeling. Some say That the Australian Army of to-day has changed. No, it has not changed. . . . The determination, desire, and resolution of the army has not changed. The young men of to-day are as good and better than the soldiers of the old campaigns, and they , are better equippedT_