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The Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs to the Prime Minister of New Zealand¹

anzac AREA.

1. The following telegram has been addressed to the Joint Staff Mission, Washington, by the United Kingdom Chiefs of Staff:

‘(1) Following on a suggestion put forward by His Majesty's Government in New Zealand, the Chiefs of Staff have recommended, and the Prime Minister has approved in principle, that unified control—land, sea and air—should be established in the Anzac area.

‘(2) The arguments in favour of this arrangement may be summarised as follows:

(i)	The problem in the Anzac area is not exclusively a naval one, since there are the land and air forces in Australia, New Zealand, and various adjacent islands to be considered.
(ii)	It seems desirable that the Supreme Commander of the Anzac area should receive his instructions from the same authority as the Commander of the ABDA area, and that the machinery for ensuring that these instructions represent the views of the united nations concerned should be the same in both cases.

‘(3) The British Chiefs of Staff consider that the new arrangement should be on the following lines:

(a)	It would be necessary for the Anzac area as now agreed to be extended to include the whole of Australia, less the portion allocated to the ABDA area.
(b)	Since the problem is predominantly a naval one, the Supreme Commander of the Anzac area would be a United States Flag Officer, who should establish his headquarters ashore, probably in Australia. His headquarters staff would be on page 154 the ABDA model and consist of American, British, Australian and New Zealand officers.
(c)	There would be subordinate Commanders—land, sea and air—on the analogy of the ABDA area.
(d)	The Supreme Commander would receive his general strategic instructions through the same channels as General Wavell.

‘(4) Please take up these proposals with the United States Chiefs of Staff as a matter of urgency.

‘(5) Meanwhile, this telegram has been repeated to His Majesty's Governments in the Commonwealth of Australia and New Zealand, who have been asked to communicate their views to His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom as soon as possible. These will be passed to you at once.

‘(6) Assuming that all are in agreement in principle, we request that the Combined Chiefs of Staff should obtain the President's approval. Thereafter the detailed arrangements will be the subject of consultation between the Governments concerned.’

2. We should be glad to have the views of the Commonwealth and New Zealand Governments on these proposals as soon as possible.