PRAISE FOR NEW ZEALAND

Southland Times, Issue 24754, 27 May 1942, Page 5

PRAISE FOR NEW ZEALAND

WAR EFFORT REVIEWED (Special Correspondent, N.Z.P.A.) LONDON, May 24. “For her tiny population New Zealand’s war effort is superb. No fewer than 140,000 men—more than 9 per cent, of the population—are under arms. Her war expenditure next year will be at least £B3 a head or £133,000,000, which is more than the cost of the whole of the last war to the Dominion.” These are abbreviated extracts‘from an article by Henry Keys in The Sunday Express. “The New Zealanders themselves, a quiet rural people, are ruled by a radical Socialist Government in which nonNew Zealanders hold the biggest jobs,” Mr Keys continues. “Even with war on their doorstep few New Zealanders really believe that their country will be attacked. They think that they are too small fry for the Japs and that in any case the war will be won in Europe. As a matter of fact the war has not seemed very real to the New Zealanders, except for those immediately affected.”

The correspondent of the New Zealand Press Association in London says that this article will be read with interest, particularly by New Zealanders who see comparatively little of the Dominion’s news and views in the English newspapers, a fact which contrasts with the publicity given to Australia and the other Dominions. Many English people in addition to New Zealanders have commented from time to time on the relative lack of New Zealand opinion on recent events in the Far East. The little limited comment is confined chiefly to Mr Fraser’s speeches, extracts from which have tended to give an impression of “correctness”— which was the chief characteristic of his speeches during last year’s visit. New Zealand could well do with greater publicity in Britain. It has fallen off after the outbreak of war as a result chiefly of the automatic ending of the advertising of the various produce boards when rationing was introduced. The Dominion is well-known and very popular in Britain, but more could be told of its views, opinions and ambitions and also of its war effort not only through the newspapers, but also by films and radio. Judging from the reports New Zealand needs a most vigorous publicity campaign in the United States, where Australian propaganda is good and New Zealand publicity almost entirely lacking.