CELEBRATIONS ABANDONED

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 24053, 15 September 1943, Page 4

CELEBRATIONS ABANDONED

CAPITULATION OF ITALY

PRIME MINISTER’S ANNOUNCEMENT

(P.A.) WELLINGTON, Sept. 14. In a statement at Invercargill tonight, the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) announced that the national celebration of the capitulation of Italy, proposed for Saturday, had now been abandoned.

“The national committee, representative of all sections of the community, set up to consider the proposal, has reported in the light of replies received to my telegrams to all local authorities throughout New Zealand that already in a number of places the capitulation has been celebrated with great enthusiasm,’’ said Mr Fraser. “Only elsewhere would it have been possible to have parades symbolising New Zealand’s total war effort, and as nothing but completely national scale celebrations would be appropriate, it has been decided to abandon the proposal. However, a foundation has been laid for the celebration, at very short notice, of the next appropriate occasion, which all trust would not be long in coming.”

NO SPECIAL HOLIDAY ON SATURDAY

(P.A.) INVERCARGILL, Sept. 14. The Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) announced to-night that in view of the cancellation of the victory celebrations for Saturday, there will be no special holiday observance on that day.

MAYOR’S STATEMENT

No reply had been received last evening by the Mayor of Christchurch (Mr E. H. Andrews) to his telegrams to the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser) and the chairman of the Victory Parade Industrial Committee, Wellington (Mr J. Fletcher) advising the refusal of Christchurch local bodies to co-operate in the victory parades planned by the Government for next Saturday.

Mr Andrews said the attitude taken by the mayors and chairmen of local bodies in the Christchurch metropolitan area had been supported by all those organisations which would normally be expected to assist in such a parade. “Moreover, of the hundreds of citizens with whom I have spoken in the last few days, not one has expressed approval of the plan,” added Mr Andrews. He had been informed that Auckland local bodies and other centres had expressed much the same views as those of Christchurch in rejecting the idea. He had had a telephone call from Mr T. C. A. Hislop, Mayor of Wellington, who also opposed the scheme strongly. Mr Hislop had informed him, however, that local bodies were not deputed to act as the organising authority in Wellington, where the plans were directly under the control of the Government.