WAR CABINET’S WORK

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23131, 21 September 1940, Page 4

WAR CABINET’S WORK

DIRECTING VAST

EXPENDITURE

HON. ADAM HAMILTON’S

REVIEW

(PRESS ASSOCIATION TELEOHAM.) INVERCARGILL, September 20. “We are spending £750,000 a week or more than £IOO,OOO a day on war work. The War Cabinet is a team of five men contracting for and directing expenditure on a scale not exceeded by the entire Budget of the Dominion only a few years ago.” This was the comment of the Hon, Adam Hamilton, a Minister in the War Cabinet and Leader of the Opposition, when he was interviewed in Invercargill tonight about the work of the War Cabinet. “We have settled down to the job after the initial stage. It is now about two months since the War Cabinet was formed.” Mr Hamilton continued. "People often ask what we- are doing, and how we are getting on. I am afraid it is not the sort of business thafis accompanied with full page advertisements, but I can assure everyone that we are very much on the job. “Those who stoo to think for an instant must realise the magnitude of the task. The Cabinet directs and controls our entire war effort and the emergency regulations connected with that effort. The work of the War Cabinet in the main is secret and the subjects and the information discussed must be retained in the fewest possible hands, whether it concerns supplies, ships, equipment, troop movements, munitions, general organisation, or information from various parts of the world. The reason for this is clear. That is wny it is not'publicised in the normal manner.”

Mr Hamilton explained that the War Cabinet normally met every day. It had met on practically every day since it was set up in July, and it had frequently sat all day. Information received from various parts of the world was considered, and replies given. Important decisions of this nature were made almost every "day. All the work was of an immediate and urgent nature. Members of the War Cabinet maintained as close touch as possible with the various training centres so as to make contact, both personal and practical. Demand for Full Effort When asked if he considered, in the light of his experience in the War Cabinet that New Zealand was making and planning to make a reasonable contribution to the Empire’s cause, Mr Hamilton replied: “Emphatically yes.” “We in New Zealand had ground to make up.” he added. “Who in the Empire, the Mother Country included, has not had ground to make up? We are making it up. Wherever the New Zealand Forces face the foe they will be trained and well equipped for any emergency.- Every day and every hour sees a further improvement in this. No stone must be left unturned. Of course, talk will not win the war. but I want to say confidently that the plan for New Zealand's war effort will take our people right up to the collar in he great work ahead. “The question I ask is: ‘Do the mass of the people in New Zealand, as well as their leaders, yet realise the extreme emergency and the dire necssity?’ I fear sometimes that wo who are far from the shattering of bombs and destruction of the conflict are a little apt to continue our pleasureloving peace time tempo in thought and action. “To-day I emphasise that we must throw our full weight in the scales for victory. We have by no means reached the stage in this conflict where we have not got to exert ourselves to the utmost to succeed."

CENTRAL MISSION

* .To-morrow night at the Crystal Palace Theatre the Rev. D. Gardner Miller will give an address on present events, under the title “The Moving Finger Writes: and, Having Writ. Moves On.” The soloist will be Mrs J. Stewart. Doors will be open at 6.30 p.m., and community singing, led by Mr Gordon Woodham, will begin at 6.45 p.m.