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The New Zealand Liaison Officer (London) to the Chief of the General Staff (Wellington)

Secret and personal for General Puttick.

In allotting Joint Planning Committee activity I am somewhat handicapped by the lack of up-to-date information on the present situation in New Zealand. In this respect I particularly request your views on the scale of attacks now possible on New Zealand (a) if Fiji and New Caledonia are held, (b) if these islands are lost. In a proposed paper the Joint Planning Committee are suggesting that in (a) only sporadic raids by enemy cruisers and aircraft carriers are likely, and in (b) one brigade group with naval and air support, which I consider too light and have not accepted. The basis of their argument is that all Japanese activity after the capture of the Netherlands East Indies will be westwards to India and northwards to Burma.