Charter for Down Under

In Canberra, five days of momentous conferences ended with Prime Ministers John Curtin of Australia and Peter Fraser of New Zealand seated at a historic table. On it, in 1900, Queen Victoria scratched her Royal assent to a Constitution for Australia. On it, last week, two Laborites committed their countries to a document which, they hope, may become the Charter of the Southwest Pacific.

While London, seat of Empire, talked and dallied, two Governments of the British Commonwealth had united on a common foreign policy.

Arc of Security. The primary aim was to establish a "permanent zone of interest" over an arc of islands stretching from Timor to Western Samoa. The great half-circle includes New Guinea, the Solomons, the New Hebrides. The Commonwealths down under want to make sure that an enemy will never again get as close to Australia as the Japanese did in 1942. Australia and New Zealand propose to police the area within the arc, pay part of the costs of a standing force if other interested nations will collaborate. Others affected: the U.S., The Netherlands, France, Portugal, Great Britain.

Smuts In Translation. South Africa's Prime Minister Jan Christiaan Smuts last November proposed just such Dominion cooperation to "tidy up" the Commonwealth and Empire. Canberra had translated his doctrine into a dynamic program. Said John Curtin: "This conference is ... of deep significance to the whole structure of the British Commonwealth of Nations."

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