BEYOND PARTY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 145, 20 June 1940, Page 16

BEYOND PARTY.

I i I ' I PLEA FOR NATIONAL UNITY. ESSENTIAL NEKD IS SPEED. (By Teleetraph.—Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Declaring that the present situation j had gone far beyond any consideration of party politics, Mr. J. G. Coates : (Opposition, Kaipara), in the House of Representatives last night, renewed his appeal for unity, and when reminded by j Labour members that his party had refused 'to join the proposed War Cabinet,: retorted that they should have been invited tq enter on even terms with ordinary Everyone knew, he said, that two,«nieniber* of-the executive without portfolio would not be on the same basis as any Minister. Even if the Government took one, he should have the same status as a Minister.! Everyone to-day desired one thing and j to get ahead quickly with it. j The ;Minister of Finance, Mr. Nash: It was stated that all ]>owers necessary for tlie war would be included arid that ! man-power would be associated because it is absurd to talk about controlling the Army and Navy and the Air Force without controlling men. j! Mr. Coates: Without financial re-!, sources. You cannot separate them. L Criticising the unwieldy nature of the : War Council, Mr. Coates stated that it j totalled 14 members. There was also a man-power committee of four, a factories committee of 12, an agricultural com- ! mittee of 21 and a council of labour of 10, making 61 people. How, he asked, could all these control problems of war? The Rev. A. H. Nordmeyer (Government, Oamaru): There are eighty mem■bers in the House. Mr. Coates: Every one of these committees must drift through the War Council and go to Cabinet for decision. If we carry democracy to the . point ( where it ties us by. the legs we are not I doing our job, because the essential < need is speed. This War Council is < another clog. We had committees of j : defence and defence councils, and they i « broke down.