FULL AGREEMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25135, 28 January 1943, Page 5

FULL AGREEMENT

TEXT OF COMMUNIQUE AID FOR RUSSIA AND CHINA (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Jan. 27. , The Prime Minister. Mr Fraser, has received the official text of. the communique which was issued in London to-day: “The President of the United States and the Prime Minister of Britain have been in conference near Casablanca since. January. 14. They were accompanied by the combined Chiefs of Staff of the two countries. “For 10. days the combined staffs have been in constant session, meeting two and three times a day and recording progress at intervals to the President and Prime Minister. The entire field of the war was surveyed theatre by theatre throughout the world, and all the Allied resources were marshalled for the more intense prosecution of the war by sea,, land, and air. ?. Nothing like this prolonged discussion between the two Allies has ever taken place before. Coihplete agreemen’ was reached between the leaders of the two countries and their respective staffs upon the war plans and enterprises to be undertaken during the campaign of 1943 against ■ Germany. Italy, and Japan, with a view to. drawing the utmost advantage from the markedly favourable turn of events at .) the close of 1942. “M. Stalin was cordially invited to meet President Roosevelt and Mr Churchill, in which case the meeting would have been held very much further to the east. He was, Imwever, unable to leave Russia at this time, on account of the great offensive which he himself, as commander-in-chief, is directing. President Roosevelt and Mr ' Churchill recognise to the full the enormous weight of war which Russia is successfully bearing along her ' whole land front, and their prime object has been to draw as much weight as possible off the Russian armies by engaging the' enemy as heavily as possible at the best selected, points. “M. Stalin has been fully informed of the military proposals. President Roosevelt and Mr Churchill have been in communication with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. They have apprised him of the measures they are undertaking to assist him in China’s magnificent and unrelaxing struggle for the common cause. “The occasion of the meeting between President Roosevelt and Mr Churchill made it opportune to invite General Giraud to confer with the combined Chiefs of Staffs and to arrange for a meeting between him and General de Gaulle. The two generals have been in close consultation. “The President and the Prime Minister and the combined staffs, having completed their plans for the offensive campaign of 1943, have now separated in order to put them into active and concerted execution.”