Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Documents Relating to New Zealand's Participation in the Second World War 1939–45: Volume III

248 — The Prime Minister of New Zealand to the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs1 — [Extract]

248
The Prime Minister of New Zealand to the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs1
[Extract]

7 March 1941

With reference to your Circular telegram of 17 January [No. 245], His Majesty's Government in New Zealand note with pleasure that it is proposed to provide some form of fixed defences for relatively isolated ports, which they understand to refer to such places as Fanning Island, Ocean Island, etc., and not to secondary ports in New Zealand for which cover is provided by the Air Striking Force.

2. His Majesty's Government in New Zealand have expressed their concurrence in the proposals made by the Commonwealth Government to provide fixed defences, inter alia, at Nauru and Ocean Island, and have indicated their willingness to provide personnel for the battery at the latter island. In this connection please see my telegram No. 6312 of 19 February….3

4. Further recommendations have been submitted by the New Zealand Chiefs of Staff that fixed defences (one battery each of two 6-inch guns) be provided at Navula Passage, Fiji, and also in certain circumstances at Makatea. His Majesty's Government in New Zealand agree with the proposal concerning Navula Passage and recommend it to the favourable consideration of His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The position at Makatea appears to depend upon the desirability

1 Repeated to the Prime Minister of Australia.

2 Not published.

3 See Fanning Island, No. 329, for text omitted.

page 279 or otherwise of obtaining supplies of phosphate from that island. This matter has been under discussion with the Australian Minister who has recently been in New Zealand,1 and it is proposed that the New Zealand Chiefs of Staff, who will shortly be proceeding to Australia in connection with the recent Singapore Conference, should discuss the question of Makatea there, and a further communication will be despatched on this subject in due course.2

5. The Chiefs of Staff have considered the question of the installation of fixed defences at Nukualofa and Papeete and have come to the conclusion that they are unnecessary. In this connection reference is invited to my telegram No. 39 of 7 February.3

6. His Majesty's Government in New Zealand assume that if the recommendations for the provision of fixed defences at the places referred to in this telegram are accepted, His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom will, at the same time as guns are provided, arrange also the supply of an adequate reserve of ammunition….4

1 Hon. H. L. Anthony; Assistant Treasurer and Assistant Minister of Commerce, 1940; Minister of Transport, Jun – Oct 1941.

2 In a telegram dated 27 March the Prime Minister said that heavy guns were not recommended for Makatea.

3 Not published. The Government supported a recommendation of the New Zealand Chiefs of Staff that the port defences of Wellington be increased by the installation of two 6-inch naval guns originally intended for Papeete and asked that they be retained in New Zealand.

4 In the text omitted the United Kingdom Government was asked to provide guns and ammunition for the ports of Lyttelton, Port Chalmers and Dunedin.