Meeting The Crisis

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 66, 10 December 1938, Page 13

Meeting The Crisis

Sir,—Prior to the election the National Party frequently drew the attention of the Labour Party to the dangerous position into which the country’s finances were drifting. Labour consistently denied this, and the Prime Minister was among those who assured the publie that the Government had detailed, comprehensive plans ready to meet any crisis. It is interesting to recall that Mr. Savage remarked that it would be too late to discuss remedies when a crisis was already upon the country; preparation must be laid in time of prosperity. The election over. Mr. Savage now confesses that a crisis is upon the country —“if ever there was a case of emergency, this is one. without waiting for war.” As for the plans so carefully laid long ago to meet a crisis, Mr. Savage is not at all explicit. He says that some members of Cabinet arc engaged upon a plan. It appears that the basis of that plan is increased production, which the National Party has striven for, but which Labour legislation has stifled, and which organized labour has deliberately “sabotaged.”

That the last-mentioned contention is correct is proved by the appeal of Mr. Arthur Cook, secretary of the New Zealand Workers’ Union,' to its members in which he says: “The, old policy under past administrations of doing as little as we can for as much as we can get. must be forgotten.”—l am. etc., PRODUCTION. Wellington, December 8.