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The Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs to the Governor-General of New Zealand

Your telegram of 27 June.

We greatly appreciate the suggestion that a brigade group should be sent from New Zealand to Fiji and our provisional view is that this would be a very valuable role for the New Zealand Forces. The position is that at the moment we are giving active consideration to the situation in the Far East generally and hope in the near future to be able to communicate a full appreciation of the position in the Pacific as we see it.¹ It was as a preliminary measure resulting out of this examination of the position that we thought it desirable to approach the Commonwealth Government as to the possibility of sending military and air reinforcements to Singapore, in my telegram of 28 June, No. 228, which was repeated to you.²

Our examination of the situation will of course take into account the considerations advanced in your telegram of 27 June regarding the use of New Zealand forces generally.