DEFENCE PLANS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26717, 11 March 1948, Page 4

DEFENCE PLANS

NEW ZEALAND AND AUSTRALIA CO-ORDINATION ESSENTIAL P.A. WELLINGTON, Mar. 10. Neither the Australian nor New Zeland Governments considered war was imminent, but it was essential that they should put their houses in order, said the Australian High Commissioner, Mr A. R. Cutler, commenting yesterday on the appointment of Brigadier G. W. O’Brien as military secretary on his staff. Mr Cutler, accompanied by Brigadier O’Brien, returned to-day from Australia by the Wahine. The appointment of Brigadier O’Brien (who will act as defence liaison officer between the Australian staff and the three New Zealand services), continued Mr Cutler, was necessary, because the former idea of British Commonwealth defence, which was pivoted’ on the United Kingdom, had been altered to a concept of glonal defence in which each part of the Commonwealth would accept responsibility for its own area. While the Canberra Pact had stipulated that both countries should co-operate in Pacific defences, the appointment of Brigadier O’Brien envisioned something far wider, as “it tied up with the British Commonwealth plans,” Mr Cutler concluded.