Mr. Nash is at present engaged in discussions on financial
questions and on the prices of New Zealand products. On his
way back to this country it is anticipated that he will conclude
with the United States Government a final settlement covering
outstanding lend-lease and reciprocal-aid transactions upon which
agreement in principle has been reached and the drafting of
which is nearly complete.

Mr. Nash will also continue discussions with the United States
authorities on the mutual use of island bases in accordance with
my Government's desire to be closely associated with the
Government of the United States and other Commonwealth
Governments in responsibility for defence in the Pacific.

There is one problem the seriousness of which has never
ceased to cause deep concern to my Government, and the
deepening shadows of which have long suggested the inexorable
approach of catastrophe. Following close on the privations of
war, one of the worst famines in history is threatening with
starvation hundreds of millions of human beings in India, in
China, in Europe, and in almost every corner of the globe. By
good fortune our country has escaped this culminating disaster,
but for no nation is there any escape from the responsibility to
save human lives.

In spite of the drought which has seriously impaired New
Zealand production, and although New Zealand has not herself
sufficient cereals for her own requirements, the fullest measure
of assistance is being afforded to the distressed countries. The
extraction rate in the manufacture of flour has been increased
in order to reduce wheat importation, and my Government have
recently called for a national campaign which, by encouraging
increased production, the saving of fats, the voluntary surrender
of coupons for rationed foodstuffs and the elimination of waste,
aims at augmenting food exports to the United Kingdom so that
they may be used to relieve the present distress and provide for
even greater assistance next season when the crisis will still be
severe.

My Government have also taken a full share in the work of
the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration,
and have participated in all the principal meetings of its Council
and its Far Eastern Committee. When it became apparent
that the resources of the Administration, based on the initial
contributions of member countries, would be totally inadequate
for the programme to which the Administration was committed,
my Government, in response to an urgent appeal from the
Council, felt New Zealand could do no less than make another
contribution comparable to its first, and it is proposed to submit
to Parliament at an early date the legislation necessary for this
to be authorized.

My Government have also participated fully in the work of
the Food and Agriculture Organization and have been invited
to accept membership of the International Emergency Food
Council, whose establishment was recommended at a special
meeting on urgent food problems which the Organization has
just held in Washington.

In the Far East, New Zealand has continued and further
developed its association with other nations intimately concerned
in ensuring that Japan does not again menace the peace of the
world. From the time of the first meeting on 30th October last,
New Zealand has been among the nations represented on the
Far Eastern Commission. When that body paid a brief visit