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Memorandum of Conversation, by the Assistant Secretary of State (Berle)
Mr. McIntosh56a asked whether we connected, in our minds, military with civil air bases.
I said that while the two subjects were distinct, they did have a certain connection. In some cases, certainly, the civil aviation air-fields [Page 513] could be used to keep alive military bases which we might need for the general defense.
Pursuing this opening, I said that our military people felt that we should have to undertake responsibilities in the Pacific, which would include having certain military or naval air bases in the various islands. It might well be that some of these might have to be in islands presently held by New Zealand, though the precise locations had not altogether been worked out. I wondered what the ideas of the New Zealand Government might be.
Mr. McIntosh recognized perfectly that the United States would have to take quite a hand in the continued defense of the Pacific and, indeed, they welcomed it. In respect of military bases, they felt that it would be both wise and useful to have some: he mentioned more particularly New Caledonia (which, of course, is French) but likewise mentioned the Fiji Islands, part of which are under New Zealand administration. He said that in this connection it would be far easier to arrange for air bases under the control of a general world organization for security than on any other basis.
- New Zealand Secretary of External Affairs.↩