When Japs Menaced NZ

Fiji Was Ready

rr\HE intention of the New Zealand JL Government to make Fiji the Dominion’s front line in the event of attack by the Japanese, was revealed by the Prime Minister, Mr. P. Frazer, in newspaper articles in August. Early in the Pacific War, he said, the only two anti-aircraft guns in New Zealand were removed from Wellington and Auckland and shifted to Fiji.

A consultation between New Zealand and American officials in Fiji has re sulted in an urgent request to New Zealand for 900 public works employees and all the available earth-moving equip ment. Within half a day, arrangements for chartering a ship were made and a great consignment of men and machines (mostly from the South Island, as those in the North Island had already been sent to Malaya and the Middle East) had left the Dominion.

In Fiji, men and machines worked be side members of an Air Force Aerodrome Construction Unit, and to such good effect that the first Flying Fortress was able to land in the Colony three days ahead of schedule.

It was announced in Fiji in mid-July that Lady Mitchell, wife of the Governor, Sir Philip Mitchell, was expected to join her husband in the Colony shortly.