CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 304, 26 December 1939, Page 6

CORRESPONDENTS' VIEWS.

BOTH SIDES

(To the Editor.) The Hon. Adam Hamilton is under a debt of gratitude to the Rt. Hon. Michael •Joseph Savage for gracious permission to broadcast to the nation over the national radio on Sunday night a Christmas message. One can assume that Mr. Savage has at laet realised his duty as Prime Minister to the pubikand can hope that his change of heart at this season of goodwill will continue through the workaday years. Then all would be able to hear both sides of the many difficult questions that confrom us all. The travails of the Labour party are all our travails, though it can be said they are not alwavs of our making. The Government does" not seek to monopolise other national services: 'so why the radio? The Opposition is as necessary a part of the Government machine in democratic countries as the party in power. The public pay tha piper to hear both sides. Or whv a Parliament at all? We could have* our Caesars in name as well as deed. As a convivial party, say, Messrs. Savags and Hamilton, Xash and Lee, Coates and the übiquitous Mr. Scrimgeour as major domo, and could in this seasou of goodwill and amity do more than a little to promote a spirit and atmosphere more in line with good government and fair play, to say nothing of an adequate war effort. The spirit of martial esprit de corps and material sacrifice so evident 2.) years a.?o is to-day lamentablv lacking. We lag in both men and money. PAX IX BELLO.