WAR AND POST-WAR PROBLEMS

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVI, Issue 23036, 30 October 1944, Page 4

WAR AND POST-WAR PROBLEMS

Discussions Pending Australia And New Zealand (N.Z.P.A.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 29. Broad issues of policy affecting the relations between New ZeaI land and Australia would be discussed in conference at Wellington, said Mr F. M. Forde, Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and Minister for the Army, when he arrived on Saturday. The conference was the first of those to be held under the Canberra Agreement between the Dominion and Australia, and future conferences were to be held at least twice a year, if possible alternately in Wellington and Canberra. “The Japanese empire will not be defeated easily in spite of the great successes which have recently been achieved in the Philippines,” Mr Forde said. “There will be much hard fighting before the final victory is won, and we in Australia have prepared for a considerable period of war ahead. We have passed the stage in the Pacific where we are merely required to defend ourselves.” It was right that Australia and New Zealand, as two units of the British Emoire closely associated, should meet together to plan for the future, not only for defence, but for the problems that the post-war period -would bring. Tribute to lighting Forces “I am very glad to be able to say that the Government and the people of New Zealand have always given magnificent co-operation to Australia, particularly during the war,” Mr Forde added. He paia a tribute to the valour and tenacity of New Zealand’s fighting forces on their many battlefronts, and also to the people ot New Zealand for their great effort on the home front. Not only had New Zealand been able to keep a force in Italy but it had troops in battie in the Pacific where their operations had been conspicuously successful. In the skies over Britain and now over the European battlefront Australian and New Zealand airmen had fought and were lighting side by side, and they formed a consierable proportion of the Royal Air Force. “On the home front in New Zealand I am informed that your problems have been very much the same as ours,” Mr Forde continued. “We are required not only to feed and service our own force in the Pacific but the forces of our Allies as well, and to send considerable supplies of food to Great Britain. Tnis has caused a great deal of hardship and inconvenience at home which the peoples of both nations have borne magnificently. The political and common ties between New Zealand and Australia have been strengthened during the war, and I believe it is to our mutual advantage that we should continue to strengthen further these connections.” Australia’s War Effort Australia was still maintaining its war effort at the maximum, and the Government was determined to maintain the fighting forces at the maximum operational strength of which the nation was capable. Until recently the Australian Army had performed most of the land fighting in the South-west Pacific area, and in future it would take part in campaigns of equal if not greater importance than any in which they had already participated, of Australia’s total population of 7,300,000, enlistments in the fighting forces were 963,000 men to September, and Australians had fought on almost every world battlefront.

Mr Forde paid a tribute to the work of New Zealand's High Commissioner in Australia, Mr J. G. Barclay, whom he described as a worthy successor to Mr c. A. Berendsen and as one of the most popular representatives in Canberra. His appointment had done much to further New Zealand-Aus-tralian relations, and they would be further strengthened by the conferences planned.