INTERNAL POLICY

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 70, 15 December 1939, Page 7

INTERNAL POLICY

Government’s Actions Criticized

TREND TO SOCIALISM Address By Mr. Algie At Auckland Dominion Special Service AUCKLAND, Dec. 14. “The Government is being forced to rely upon a whole family of ‘Radio Uncles’ in its determined and continuous efforts to induce the people to believe that things are not so bad as they seem.” With these words, Mr. R. M. Algie opened his address in the Auckland Town Hall tonight.

"Our •Uncle oi the Friendly Koa<_ has now been partnered in a combined double on Sunday evenings by no less a protagonist than the Prime Minister himself,” Mr. Algie continued, “and, almost nightly throughout the week we Hit from ‘Uncle’ to ‘Uncle,’ the tuue changing according to the voice, but the purpose being always the same—propaganda, and always more propaganda. ‘•lf the policy of the Government had been as successful as we were told it would be, then surely there would have been no need for all the broadcasts.”

The wrongs of which so many people were complaining, and the difficulties in which the Government now found itself, were not attributable in any real sense to war conditions, he continued. They were simply the cumulative result of three years of Government policy, and there was no escape from that. The average citizen was as loyal as any member of the Government, and just as determined to play hi s part in the war effort of bis country. But he was equally determined not to submit to any further and unnecessary instalments of socialization, and it was perfectly clear to him that four years of Government policy were a major factor in preventing him from rendering that degree of national service which he would otherwise have been glad and able to give. Private Enterprise. When the war broke out, however, the Government had to make some most important decisions. Among other things, it had to decide whether it woiild carry on with its attack on individual enterprise and free business, or suspend those activities for a time and concentrate entirely upon winning the war. What happened? Mr. Savage himself had said over the air on a recent Sunday evening that his Government felt that they would have been untrue to its party supporters if it had slackened off in its policy of socialization. When it passed the Marketing Act, and the Heserve Bank Act. it had demonstrated, without any room for argument, that the war effort of New Zealand was by no means its only aim. At such a time it was right and proper that all sections of the community should be united in one great and determined co-operative effort, but cooperation implied mutual concessions. The Government expected co-operation but without any concessions on its part, ami those who would like to give the co-operation found that, if they did so, they were expected to assent passively to the terms persisted in by the Government.

It was a tragedy, too, that, at a time like the present, questions of internal politics could still loom so largely in the forefront of public discussion. The prosecution of this country’s part in the war, and the making of every possible provision for our soldiers, were tasks that demanded wholehearted unity on .the part of the people, and a measure of forbearance on the part of the Government. There was no reason on earth why, in order to help to win the war, the people of this country should have to submit to the permanent socialization of their economic life. If we were expected to do all we could to resist aggression and dictation abroad, why was it necessary that we should have to begin by making a permanent surrender of every liberty we possessed in New Zealand? The Government had attempted to put the people in a most awkward dilemma; either they must submit to socialization in order that a maximum war effort might be made, or they must defend their natural rights and be branded as disloyal and seditious obstructionists. But those were false alternatives. The people had a clear legal and constitutional right to present their views to the Government, and they had also a right to ask the Government to remove as far as possible all those “party’’ fetters and restrictions which were preventing the people from giving that degree of national service which they would otherwise have been able to render. "Extravagant Policy.” It was perfectly obvious, continued Mr. Algie, that the ill-effects of a longcontinued policy of extravagant and partly-unproductive expenditure of public money, and of restriction, regulation and muddling interference with private business and industry, were becoming increasingly clear to an evergrowing number of people.

Our political leaders were talking loudly of their belief in democracy, and they were just as constantly practising dictatorship. It was idle to say that we were a free people. There was an acid test by which that statement could be measured. We were truly free if the people who were governed had the right to criticize, and if the Government was ready to grant redress. It was relatively easy to show that, in New Zealand, neither of these conditions was fully satisfied. The realization of this fact was forcing people to ask very direct and pertinent questions as to the nature of their legal and constitutional rights. Couid the British Government help in a case of emergency? Had citizens a right to petition the King? Could the GovernorGeneral dismiss bis Ministers? Must he dissolve Parliament if they ask him to do so? These and many other similar questions were being put, and this search for information showed conclusively that there was a growing uneasiness, a groping for a lead, and a desire for a clear statement as to what the position really was. “Political power,’’ concluded Mr. Algie, “rests in the end with the people themselves. They get the kind of Government the majority of them want. If their opinions change, they can get rid of it only by the use of (lie same means by which (bey got it. If wrongs of a substantial nature exist, it is the duty of the Government to redress them if it can. If the wrongs are really serious, the good sense of the people will ultimately prevail, and (he more serious thev are. the sooner the people will see It. 'A. dictatorial attitude on the part of the Government toward the reasonable and just complaints of the governed will have only one result; it may take time, but in the end a people will show a Government what it thinks of those who turn a deaf and unsympathetic oar to those who have right ami justice on their side.’’