EXCHANGE OF VIEWS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIV, Issue 22777, 29 December 1943, Page 5

EXCHANGE OF VIEWS

Dominion And Australia POST-WAR POLICY IN PACIFIC (Rec. 10.10) SYDNEY, Dec. 28. New Zealand and Australia should have a clear understanding of each other's point of view before any Imperial Conference is held in 1944. Australian political commentators believe, too, that especially in Southern Pacific matters agreement on post-war policy between the two members of the British Commonwealth immediately concerned must precede any general agreement by the Empire nations as a whole. For these main reasons the visit to Australia next month of New Zealand Cabinet Ministers led by the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser is being hailed here as marking a new and important accord in the relations of two Dominions.' “New Zealand is our natural ally and blood brother,” declares the “Sydney Sun” in a leading article to-day. “Its security is ours, its prosperity marches with our own, and because of these mutualities its foreign policy should be Identical with ours. With New Zealand we share the responsibility fbr the maintenance of peace and security in the future in a wide arc from Portuguese Timor through the Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea and the Solomons to New Caledonia and Fiji. Our interests in trade and in the air are closely related. Both countries must share control of the air bases strung across the Pacific, for they are stepping stones linking us with the. Americas. The discussions of common problems between the political leaders of both Dominions will enable a concerted Pacific voice to be heard in the coming Empire Conference. Such a community of policy will be a potent force for understanding between the two Dominions and a guarantee of mutual defence and common security.” The "Sydney Daily Telegraph” praises the suggestion of the Hon. W. Nash for a federation of five nations (United States, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand) to control the Pacific Islands and so avoid a monopoly or conflict. “Mr Nash has found the only possible compromise between two strong competitors," says the paper. “His suggestion points the way to a world of co-operative effort,. With the aviation rights of the Pacific and other bases internationally controlled. neither America nor Britain would lose anything and the small nations would gain. Mr Nash will find many friends for his proposal in America.”