TRIBUTE TO NAVY

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 87, Issue 66, 20 March 1943, Page 5

TRIBUTE TO NAVY

HON. F. JONES ON ESCORT RESULTS Recd. 6 p.m. Rugby, March 18. “I do not think one man of the thousands of New Zealand troops has been lost en route to the Middle East, the South Pacific or Britain,” said the Hon. F. Jones, New Zealand Minister of Defence, at a Press conference in Cairo. That result, ...he said, was a tribute to the Navy. ... New Zealand’s naval personnel at the present moment was 10 times greater than before the war. Several thousand men had joined the Royal Navy and were attached to minesweepers or working with the Fleet Air Arm.

Referring to the Army, Mr. Jones paid a tribute to the New Zealand forces in the Middle East, who had proved a credit to the Dominion.

He said the Government was now tackling the problem of rehabilitation and a board had been appointed and legislation passed for the purpose of finding employment. Discharged men would be given three years’ training and paid a wage while learning a trade until they had completed their training. Mr. Jones also told how the possib.lity of Japan declaring war on Britain had been discussed in peace time, and a conference in March, 1939,

Ol British, Australian and New Zeala.id authorities had decided that the area from Port Moresby to the New Hebrides should be the responsibility of the Australian Government, while New Zealand shoufd be responsible from the New Hebrides to Tonga. The idea was that if they had air forces 'operating throughout the area they would be able to give early advice to both countries of any big movements of enemy forces down towards the south.’ That preparation had been just i fi ed. —8.0.W.