SHADOW OF WAR

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 1, 2 January 1945, Page 3

SHADOW OF WAR

DOMINION PROSPECTS

PRIME MINISTER'S MESSAGE

WELLINGTON, Monday

"On New Year's Day, 1945, I have the privilege to extend from Rarotonga the warmest seasonal greetings to my fellow-citizens in New Zealand," says the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, in a New Year message. "This is the sixth New Year which we have entered with the shadow of war around us, and on this, more than any of previous occasions, we have cause to believe that it will be a happier and more successful year than the live which have passed. "One of the rnost difficult problems which faces us in the New Year is the implementation of the replacement scheme. Those who have served overseas longest are clearly entitled to relief. Their places can only be taken by those who have been held back in essential industry or by others now in industry whose overseas service has not been of long duration. I am confident that any disorganisation which this entails will be accepted and overcome as on previous occasions when the war effort demanded extraordinary measures to meet extraordinary situations. Production and Wages "The people of New Zealand can point with pride to their splendid record on the home front. Production has been .sustained at remarkably high levels. New Zealand has a very large share of the responsibility for feeding the people of Britain. Factory workers continue to break records of production in supplying war needs and civilian necessities. "The only real answer to the problem of stabilisation is the provision of adequate goods and services for the people. Our system of stabilisation has spared us economic hardship and injustice. Its continuance is imperative if we are to preserve our country from the economic ills which otherwise go with wars and follow wars. It is necessary, too, if we are to ensure that our comprehensive rehabilitation plans are built on a secure foundation. Need for Steady War Effort "Although the prospects of victory are certain, its attainment is not yet in sight. There is and can be no feeling of complacency and no slackening of effort. Spectacular victories of the past few months may have caused some to take their eyes off the main objective and turn prematurely toward preparation for peace. Undoubtedly preparation for peace is a task as momentous as that of victory, but its pursuit must not be at the expense of the war effort. "So far the people of New Zealand are concerned, I would like to call on everybody to devote to the war that spirit of dogged determination which kindled their efforts and sustained them in the darkest days of the war, after Dunkirk and -Singapore, and when we ourselves were threatened. In this way all of us can make 'an effective contribution towards shortening the period of conflict. There is hard fighting ahead in Europe and in the Pacific and there can be no justification for any of us to neglect any effort that would shorten the war or to commit any action that would lengthen it. So long as we remember this we are entitled to go forward into 1945 with hope and confidence. I wish you all a successful New Year and speedy victory.