The Commonwealth and the Pacific
The conference between the Australian and New Zealand Govern- ments at Canberra has proved a valuable means of clarifying their respective attitudes to each other, to the Commonwealth, and to, the world. It is good for the Commonwealth as a whole that there should be such intimate understanding between two Dominions so closely associated in the Pacific War and confronted with similar problems in the future. The two Governments hold a special position in the south and south-west Pacific, but Mr. Curtin emphasised their desire for the co-operation of other Governments in handling regional matters. Both he and Mr. Fraser made it dear that they do not want their quarter of the world to be regarded as something separated from the rest ; they want other nations to be interested in the southern Pacific just as they want to make then own interest felt in affairs in the northern hemisphere. This does not only mean that they want the machinery for co-operation within the Commonwealth to be improved. They do ; but also, as Mr. Fraser said, they look forward to an effective universal organisation on the basis of either a reorganised League of Nations, or some body similarly constituted, to preserve world peace. Systems of regional defence, said Mr. Fraser, are needed, but these will not be enough, for world peace is indivisible, and the machinery for its preservation should be world-wide. This. is a truth of the greatest importance for all nations, but its recognition is a sine qua non so far as members of the British Commonwealth are concerned, for on this depends the capacity of the Commonwealth to exert its full influence in world affairs.
