1945, Peter Fraser: World statesman

Peter Fraser became a leader of small nations at the UN. (NZ Herald Archive)

Wartime Prime Minister Peter Fraser is our New Zealander of the Year, as much for his role in constructing the peace as in leading the country through the fighting.

Fraser succeeded to the top job when Michael Joseph Savage died a few months after the war began.

Despite his party's hatred of war and his own history of opposing conscription, said the Herald, Fraser never lost sight of the objective.

"Once war had been accepted, it had to be fought - and won."

It also praised him for achieving a presence on the world stage far beyond anything his predecessors had managed.

"His judgment on world affairs was sound, his exposition of international causes lucid, and by exertion and example he did more than any other man to dispel the clouds of insularity from New Zealand minds.

"In many things Peter Fraser saw further ahead than most other people."

At the formation of the United Nations in 1945 he emerged as a leader of small nations, among other things trying to have the veto rights of the five big powers removed.

Although he did not succeed in that, he set a benchmark and a tradition of New Zealand speaking with an independent voice on the international stage.

From the Herald archives:
'The Prime Minister our nation forgot', NZ Herald online, 10 March 2001

Further reading:
Biography of Peter Fraser, Te Ara Encyclopedia of New Zealand

Further viewing:
The Years Back - State of the Nation (Peter Fraser at the establishment of the United Nations - amazing speech)