The Press FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1942. Secret Sessions

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23812, 4 December 1942, Page 4

The Press FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1942. Secret Sessions

Although the Prime Minister “ thought that the war situation had “ reached a stage ” when he could make a statement on it in open session and over the air, he showed plainly that important issues in the conduct of the war are to be debated, as usual, in secret session. The Leader of the Opposition particularly requested that industrial manpower should be openly debated. Mr Fraser replied that there were “ grave difficulties in the way “of such a discussion.” These, he asked the House and the country to believe, arise from the Government’s being “under an obligation “ to the British and American Gov- “ ernments as to what we might and “ might not reveal.” The Government would “ like to give the wid- “ est possible information ” but is “ prevented ” by its “ loyalty to its “ responsibilities.” The Prime Minister appears to suggest that, because some information cannot be disclosed in open session, it is necessary to take the House into secret session not merely to hear and discuss that information but, in effect, for the debate of war issues and war administration generally. The suggestion is quite unacceptable. When the British and American Governments supply information to the New Zealand Government and indicate what may and what may not be “ revealed,” they do so for reasons of security, and the Government’s responsibility is as clear as the Prime Minister says. But it is not to be supposed—and the Prime Minister does not imply —that they have asked the Government to permit only secret debate of any issue to which that information is relevant, and to discourage and restrain open debate of all war issues, even the purely domestic ones of administration. It is not to be supposed and is, in fact, impossible. Except in so far as the Opposition has been much too tame in submitting, the Government is responsible for the fact that the secret session has been the normal, not a special, means of informing the House on the progress and conduct of the war, and the normal, not a special, occasion to debate them. The consequences have been disastrous. Debate in open session has been devitalised. Ministers have contributed little or nothing of significance to it, preferring to see it lapse as soon as possible. The public has looked to Parliament in vain, whether for enlightenment or for leadership, and discontent, factiousness, and apathy have increased accordingly. The Government’s choice of a policy which has shuttered and stultified discussion was an arbitrary choice, paralleled nowhere else in the Empire. It is not to be justified by the Prime Minister’s disingenuous plea of “ loyalty to his “ responsibilities.”