COMMON CAUSE

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22553, 10 April 1943, Page 5

COMMON CAUSE

Australia And N. Z. CANBERRA, April 9. "New Zealanders regret that for strategical purposes Australia and New Zealand have been separated in tha South-west Pacific and the South Pacific areas,” said the High Commissioner for New Zealand (Mr C. A. Berendsen) in a national broadcast to-night. “It was our wish, as I understand it was yours, that we should be in the same area, and under the same command,” said Mr Berendsen. "We felt, as we believe you feel, that although your problems in Australia are, of course, larger and more complex than ours in New Zealand, nevertheless in essence they are identical. However, those responsible for the global strategy decided otherwise and, as good partners in a joint undertaking fraught with the most vital consequences, both Australia and New Zealand agreed to sink their individual views and make the best of the arrangement that had been established.”

Mr Berendsen said that there was still room for close consultation and collaboration, and he predicted that when the time came to push the Japanese back, Australians and New Zealanders would be fighting, as they liked to fight, .side by side. New Zealanders claimed that their own troops were as good as the Australians, and no prouder boast could be made. Like Australia, New Zealand had sent troops abroad and she was providing large quantities of supplies in many shapes and forms for the Allied forces in the South and South-west Pacific and elsewhere.