CLOSER TIES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 85, Issue 47, 25 February 1941, Page 9

CLOSER TIES

AUSTRALIA AND U.S.A. ’ DOCTRINE OF FREE PEOPLES” SYDNEY, Feb. 13. New plans to make the United States and Australia better known to each other were revealed by the Minister of Information (Senator Foil), who said that high cable rates between the two countries made the flow of news inadequate. The Prime Minister (Mr. Menzies), while overseas, will endeavour to secure a reduction in the cable rates, so that the ext hange of news between the two countries will reach adequate proportions. Senator Foil stated. More powerful short-wave transmilters will be established by the Government, and information—not carefully-prepared propaganda speeches—will thus he carried into more and more American homes. “America," said Senator Fol), “is hungry for news of Australia, and more films of suitable interest and adequate quality should be sent there. The understanding and friendliness which were being achieved to-day must not disappear when the present crisis is past. We must overhaul our trade position, our cultural relations, and all matters affecting us. We must have a new Monroe Doctrine—the Monroe Doctrine of the free peoples.

It is clear that we may be the special bridge between the American and the British worlds, whose co-operation we believe will do more to ensure a bright future than any other factor. Our opportunity is to be the voice of Britain and of Australia to the peoples of the New World.” Senator Foil stressed that Australia was not turning its eyes towards the United States in any spirit of funk. Australians were building a great nation, and every man and woman would tight for it to the last, no matter who the invader might be. People who regarded the growing improvements of Australian-American feeling and understanding as merely for common defence were missing the realities of the situation. The real reason was that the all-important conviction in the minds of both peoples was that they both were defending the same principles. The closer ties between the two nations could be described as the most significant, event in the history of the Pacific.