The Auckland Star WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1942. THE POLITICAL FUTURE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 234, 3 October 1942, Page 4

The Auckland Star WITH WHICH AND INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1942. THE POLITICAL FUTURE

JHE resignation nf four of the six National party members of the War Administration has brought to an end an arrangement which the two parties, at the time of their agreement, intended should endure until the end of the war. Although in size and composition the Administration satisfied few people, and it is improbable that its members were among the few, the agreement to form it was the culmination of long and difficult negotiations, which had the support of the large section of the public that t'esired political unity. That agreement having broken down, the question before the country is whether there should be an attempt to make another arrangement, or whether the direction of the war effort can be satisfactorily carried on by the War Cabinet as it existed before the War Administration was formed. It appears unlikely that either of the parties, and still less both of them, will be willing in the immediate future to make an arrangement of the kind which has failed. Although it is most probable that Mr. Coates and Mr. Hamilton intend to continue their membership of the War Cabinet, as the Prime Minister has invited them to do, their decision is not yet announced. If they should decide not to do sn, there would be no technical obstacle to the resumption of government by a single-party Cabinet, such as exists in Canada, Australia and South Africa. As Field-Marshal Smuts, in particular, has shown, the fact that political parties are unable to combine for the purpose of carrying on a war is not necessarily a grave handicap. All depends on the quality of the leadership, and of the loyalty and discipline, in the majority party.

In New Zealand the Government party has a large majority, and although differences exist within it, these are much less serious than the differences which divide it from the Opposition. Theoretically, it could carry on the Government Indefinitely. To that course of action, if it be contemplated, there is a major obstacle. The House in which the Government has its majority has outlived the term for which it was elected. The extensions of its life, first for one year, and then for an indefinite period, were made wit/l the assent of both parties; the second extensic*rt was part and parce} of the arrangement which has now broken down, it would be gravely improper, and exceedingly damaging to the war effort, for one party to postpone indefinitely the election which is now long overdue. When the election can safely be held is another matter, dependent on the Japanese, and on the success of the United Nations in halting and repulsing the "southward drive." Their success Is not assured, and until it seems assured beyond reasonable doubt there should be no talk of staging a political battle in New Zealand.

Meanwhile the Government of the country must be carried on, and the Prime Minister's task is to strengthen his Administration pending an election to he held as soon as it is practicable. He faces a grave difficulty in the paucity of proven administrative ability in his party. This may not be acknowledged by members of the partv; but it is patent to any observer of the Parliamentary scene, and its effects are visible to a much wider circle. If there is one influence which, perhaps more than any other, is the source of inefficiency in the war effort and of a sense of frustration and exasperation among the people, it is the operation of the vast, bureaucracy centred in Wellington. The "paper war," for which it Is responsible, and the notorious lack of co-ordination among its branches are Increasingly Irritating and extensive. Yet neither under the War Cabinet nor under the War Administration was there an effective effort or Indeed, the appearance of any effort, to control and rationalise it.' The explanation of this failure is not that the Government has failed to recognise the problem, but that it has no Minister capable of grappling with It.. The Prime Minister might best succeed in the task of strengthening the Government by enlisting the services of at least two - men with executive experience in large-scale business. They would save their Ministerial salaries every day. What the Government'has failed to realise In that., though its policy and decisions often make it unpopular it Is the manner In which they are carried out which deepens resentment ana deprives it of much co-operation which patriotic people in wartime are willing to accord even to an administration which they oppose