THE DECISION

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 62, Issue 304, 6 October 1942, Page 2

THE DECISION

REMAINING IN WAR CABINET. MR HOLLAND’S CRITICISM. “TIME FOR A SHOW-DOWN.” (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. ilyi their decision to remain in tlie War Cabinet-, Messrs Coates and Hamilton have chosen to sever their connection with tlie National Party. This point was made clear by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr S. G. Holland) in a statement this morning. “1 have not heard from either Ah' Coates or Mr Hamilton,” said Mr Holland, “but from newspaper reports it ai>pears| that they have decided to continue membership of the War Cabinet, notwithstanding the decision of the caucus of the Parliamentary Opposition last week. Only two votes were then recorded against the withdrawal of our representation in the War Administration and the War Cabinet and the decision was unanimously endorsed by the Dominion Council of the Party, with representatives present from all over New Zealand.

“I do not propose entering into a discussion on their joint statement other than to say that by it Messrs Coates and Hamilton give their approval to the Government’s handling of the Waikato coal strike. They agree with the Government’s interference with the course of justice and they concur in the Government’s decision to confiscate the Waikato coal mines as a sop to industrial lawlessness. They have both been members of the War Cabinet throughout the period when the Government’s repeated submission to industrial lawlessness has brought about repeated stoppages, culminating in the recent costly, and wholly unjustifiable hold-up in the Waikato. It would appear that they are content to acquiesce in this policy both in the past and in the future, but the National Party as a whole does not agree with that attitude. No one imagines for a moment that the resumption of work at Huntly means the end of these disturbances, which will continue while the Government’s weak-kneed handling of them continues. . “The time has arrived fox* a showdown that will determine once and for all that our laws will be observed and that lawbreakers are not going to bo permitted to imperil our war effort and defy responsible government with impunity.”

MR HOLLAND CHALLENGED. CONSTITUTIONAL QUESTION. STATEMENT BY MR SEMPLE. CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. . “If the method of putting miners in gaol had been adopted the country would have been paralysed,, and that wlould have suited the Japanese,” said the Minister of Railways (the Hon. R. Semple), commenting on the Government’s decision on the Waikato mining trouble. “There would not have been a train running in less than a month in the North 'lsland if the men had gone to gaol, and not a dairy of any consequence in the North Island would have been operating If one man had been sent to gaol tire whole 1350 would have had to go. “If wo had done what Mr Holland wanted it would have been something without parallel in this country. To round up 1350 men. and put them in prison’ might have had a disastrous psychological effect on the minds of other workmen throughout the couiv try. Instead of doing that we took the other course, and, the men have been bound over by proclamation. “ We had to choose between binding the men oyer and the other course of sending them to gaol and funning the risk of paralysing the country and making it an easy victim for the enemy. “A first-class upheaval at this time would be treason to the nation. The idea of calling for a general election and asking for Minister’s resignations because a, group of men has struck is something new in the political history of New Zealand, or in the history of any other country. ‘ ‘ Another thing to note is that three of the Ministers who resigned voted to do the thing the Government has done. They then resigned because tlie Government did the. thing they voted to do, and now they blame the Government for doing it. That is unparalleled in the history of constitutional government, and I will defy Mr Holland to find one similar case in the history of the British Commonwealth.”

THE QUESTION OF RESIGNATIONS COMMENT BY MR W. D. STEWART (P.A.) DUNEDIN, This Day. The Hon. W. Downie Stewart, com' menting on the Nationalist Ministers’ resignation from the War Administration, said that if Cabinet resignations were necessary, Mr Webb and some cf his colleagues should be the first to resign, for moral responsibility for the strike lay at their doors. Early annual reports of the Miners’ Federation teemed with speeches by Messrs Webb, Semple and Fraser, jeering at those trade unions that thought disputes should be settled by peaceful means. They never tired of describing the Arbitration Act as a machine created to keep the, miners in Slavery.

-Mr Webb taught these doctrines only too well, and now he vainly pleaded, threatened, and took off his hat to the miners. Doubtless Mr W'ebb was sincerely converted, to sounder views, but he and his colleagues had never frankly recanted, and the mischief created persisted. It was useless to cry peace when all we got was patehed-up concessions outraging the public sense of justice.