The Dominion THURSDAY, JULY 4, 1940. WE CANNOT COMPROMISE WITH WAR

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 239, 4 July 1940, Page 8

The Dominion THURSDAY, JULY 4, 1940. WE CANNOT COMPROMISE WITH WAR

'l'here is material for considerable heart-searching in the remarks bv Mr M. G. C. McCaul at the Wellington Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday. The speaker was contributing to a general discussion on the Budget and the national war effort, and pointed his lemar . with some criticism of our ways of doing things the truth t of. whch it is difficult to evade. The purpose of al criticism in our nato emergency is to strengthen New Zealand s war effort. Every en couragement should be given to the Government in all ’« r es essential to the success of this effort, and one of the best methods of assisting is to point out weaknesses which should be remedied. The Chamber of Commerce has very proper y. criticized the Budget as an attempt to compromise between war conditions an P conditions. It is this inability to recognize that peacetime politics a: methods must be completely discarded that is such a to maximum “all-in” war effort. Political expediency subverts leal XZnship. There is argument and quibbling over in which there should be no room for differences of opinion. Ihe New Zealand people'are prepared for the utmost demands that may be made upJn them. Courageous and determined es,na ’ lsl ”P J harness this spirit and drive it at full speed. But the whole cause is undermined, and the nation’s energies sapped, by the the idea that everything must be done in accordance wit ] expediency, with due consideration of possible reactions from sectional mter Contrast this with the war effort of the British people; the terrible strain they are now undergoing on top of the heavy demands made upon their resources and energies. Night after night bombs are dropped by German air-raiders over some part of England. 1 is literally true that no family can retire for the night secure in the knowledge that the home and the lives of its occupants will not be destroyed before morning. Day after day come reports of raiding attacks with their toll of casualties and destruction and oyer all is the ominous shadow of worse horrors to come. All classes in Britain realize that the nation is facing the most deadly peril m its history. All are making the greatest possible sacrifices of resources, tune, an energies. Notwithstanding the stress and perils of their situation the British workers have whole-heartedly and unreservedly abandoned for the time being privileges and benefits representing many years ot organized effort. For our kinsfolk overseas the war is a grim and menacing reality with which there can be no possible compromise. We must take the same view of it, and regulate our lives and activities aCC °Mr. g McCaul points to the fate of France, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, as the writing on the wall for any nation that imagines that it can isolate itself from the realities of a world situation in which peacetime policies and ideals have gone by the board. France’s 40-hour week, he. said, was held up as an example of social progress, but in his opinion the 40-hour week sounded that nation s death-knell. The grim fact to be faced is that no country can afford to dabble in peacetime social legislation or tolerate stri * <e - s and . 0 ups while ruthless enemies, whose peoples are compelled to tighten their belts, work long hours, and submit to a grinding discipline as the price of success, are threatening invasion and conquest. 1 iat is what we have got to realize in this country. Think what we would have to Mo if the enemy appeared at our own gates. Why not do it now, and be fully armed at all times for the emergency?