We have suffered the agonising loss of two of our finest ships which we sent to sustain the Far Eastern war. We are organising from reduced forces the utmost further naval aid. In the battle of Libya, British and Empire losses to January 7 are reported at 1200 officers and 16,000 men, out of the comparatively small force it is possible to maintain forward in the Desert. A heavy battle around Agheila seems to be impending. We have successfully disengaged Tobruk, after previously relieving all your men who so gallantly held it for so long. I hope therefore you will be considerate in the judgment which you pass upon those to whom Australian lives and fortunes are so dear.

Here at least was good news:

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Prime Minister to Mr.

14 Jan. 42

Curtin

The vital convoy, including the American transport MountVernon, carrying fifty Hurricanes, one anti-tank regiment, fifty guns; one heavy anti-aircraft regiment, fifty guns; one light antiaircraft regiment, fifty guns; and the 54th British Infantry Brigade Group, total about 9000, reached Singapore safely and punctually yesterday.

Mr. Fraser also expressed his anxieties, and I replied: Prime Minister to

17 Jan. 42

Prime Minister of

New Zealand

I welcome, as always, the frank expression of your views, with which, in the main, I am much in sympathy, and the well-balanced reasoning with which you have presented them to me.

2. The Government and people of New Zealand have always adopted a helpful and realist attitude to this war, which, beginning in the narrow confines of Europe, has gradually spread over almost the entire world and is now at the doorstep of New Zealand.

3. If you have thought us unmindful of your necessities in the past, although indeed we have never been so, I can assure you that the vast distance in miles which separates London from Wellington will not cause us to be unmindful of you or leave you comfortless in your hour of peril.

4. You will, I am sure, forgive me if in the time at my disposal I do not take up each of your points in detail.

From the telegram which you have now received, since sending your telegram to me, you will know of the army and air reinforcements which we and America are sending to you. The establishment of a new Anzac naval area will, I hope, also be agreeable to you.

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Moreover, the United States contemplate the dispatch at an early date of considerable land and air forces to the Far East area.

5. Nevertheless, you would not expect me to make promises of support which cannot be fulfilled, or of the early redress of a situation in the Far East which must take time to rectify, as rectified it will be.

6. I sense your [reproach at our] having been misled by a too complacent expression of military opinion in the past on probable dangers in the Pacific area in general and to New Zealand in particular. But who could have foretold the serious opening setback which the United States Fleet suffered on December 7, with all that this and subsequent losses of our two fine ships entail?

The events of this war have been consistently unpredictable, and not all to our disadvantage. I am not sure that the German General Staff have always forecast events with unerring accuracy. For example, the Battle of Britain, the Battle of the Atlantic, and the Russian resistance must have shaken Hitler’s faith in careful calculation of military appreciations.

In due course Mr. Curtin replied to my telegram of the 14th.