HOME FRONT WORKERS

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23754, 28 September 1942, Page 4

HOME FRONT WORKERS

SUPPORT FOR FIGHTING - FORCES PRIME MINISTER’S SPEECH (P.A.) WELLINGTON, Sept, 27. “The facts of modern war weld a nation together as nothing else has done,” said the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) speaking at the launching of the minesweeper Awatere yesterday. “Soldiers, sailors and airmen are all dependent on the work of those at home. If we fail at home we defeat the men in the front rank. If any section fails it betrays the whole.” The Prime Minister was emphasising the importance of industrial effort in backing the efforts of the men in the actual battle, zones. He said that buildlhg had gone on in Britain under heavy difficulties. No bomb damage he had seen anywhere in the British Isles had exceeded that at Clydebank and Bootle. The Germans had tried to bomb the Clydeside shipyards and had succeeded in devastating the homes of those who built the ships, but the yards had carried on. The same thing had occurred at Bootle adjoining the Birkenhead yards where thousands of houses had been destroyed. “I pray God it never comes to us," said Mr Fraser, “but if it does we have Britain’s standard before us.”

Mr Fraser said that wherever one went round the world one met New Zealand sailors. The Royal New Zealand Navy had donb well. The Achilles did well at the River Plate and the deeds of the Leander, if not so spectacular, ranked equally. The Prime Minister added that shipbuilding in New Zealand was on a microscopic scale compared with the work of the Fairfield shipyards or John Brown’s on the Clydeside, but it was quite good in comparison. Three years ago none thought New Zealand could help in the provision of munitions, but to-day thousands of workers in the Dominion were helping to provide for the armed services.