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Documents Relating to New Zealand's Participation in the Second World War 1939–45: Volume I
9 — The Governor-General of New Zealand to the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs
9
The Governor-General of New Zealand to the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs
(Despatched 1.55 a.m.)
1 The text of the Proclamation, published in a New Zealand Gazette Extraordinary on 4 Sep 1939, was as follows:
Wellington, Monday, 4 September, 1939
His Excellency the Governor-General has it in command from His Majesty the King to declare that a state of war exists between His Majesty and the Government of the German Reich, and that such a state of war has existed from 9.30 p.m., New Zealand Standard Time, on the third day of September, 1939.* Given at Wellington this third day of September, 1939.
Galway, Governor-General
* *So making New Zealand's declaration of war simultaneous with the United Kingdom's declaration, 11 a.m. British summer time, 3 Sep 1939.
The New Zealand Government wish to offer to the British Government the fullest assurance of all possible support. They are convinced that the step that has been taken will meet with the approval of the people of this Dominion, and they will in due course give the fullest consideration to any suggestion of the British Government as to the method, or methods, by which this Dominion can best assist in the common cause.
1 At the request of the United Kingdom Government, the notification of the existence of a state of war between New Zealand and the German Reich was transmitted to the German Government by the United States Ambassador in Berlin. On 7 Dec 1945, in reply to an inquiry, the United States Political Adviser for Germany informed the United States Department of State that the archives of the United States Embassy in Berlin were largely destroyed by fire during the war, and that copies of the note transmitted to the German Government on behalf of the New Zealand Government, and of the German Government's acknowledgment, were therefore not available.