PUBLIC SAFETY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 233, 1 October 1940, Page 6

PUBLIC SAFETY.

An order of far-reaching importance was promulgated last night when power was taken by the AttorneyGeneral under the heading of "Obstruction of Essential Industries" to order the dismissal of any worker in the interests of public safety. There may be need for this regulation, but no explanation of any kind is offered. The new powers may be intended to check fifth columnists or potential saboteurs, or to prevent Communists seizing control of unions. If any of these is their intention they will be welcomed, but they will be more effective if those against whom they are aimed are specifically warned of the dangers they run. If the powers are general and have no direct intention, a further statement of why they are taken would be of interest and of value to the public generally in telling them what to avoid and would make their acceptance more ready. As it is, the people are in a fog; they do not know what it is all about, but they realise that very important powers have been taken by the Government, with only one method of appeal—to the Arbitration Court; and a man whose discharge has been ordered may have long to wait before his case can be heard by that busy tribunal. Up to now the gravest "obstruction of essential industries," against which the new regulation is directed, has been the strike due to trivial disputes which should never have been allowed to delay the country's war effort. The Government already has very full powers to deal with such cases.' It has not chosen to exercise them, but now that they are expanded a general statement on the intentions of the authorities under the regulations both new and old would enable the people of the Dominion better to understand their aim and their effect.