MINISTER AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 42, 13 November 1941, Page 10

MINISTER AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES

Conference On Emergency Precautions

The development of emergency precautions and future activities of this nature was discussed at a conferen.ee ou Tuesday of representatives of local authorities which had been called by the Minister of National Service, Mr. Semple. The object of the conference was to promote close co-operation between the Government and local authorities, whosb representatives would be able to assure citizens that what was being done was essential in the public interest. Mr. Semple presided, and those present included the chiefs of the three services, Commodore W. E. Parry, Major-General E. Puttick, and Air Commodore H. W. L. Saunders; the Associate Minister of National Service, Mr. Wilson, Messrs. T. Jordan (president of the Municipal Association), S. Blackley (acting for Mr. C. J. Talbot, chairman of the Counties’ Association), J. A. C. Alluni (mayor of Auckland), T. C. A. Hislop (mayor of Wellington), E. H. Andrews (mayor of Christchurch), and A. H. Allen (mayor of Dunedin). The Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, who, with several members of the War Cabinet, attended at the opening of the conference, gave the delegates a survey of the war situation, particularly in the Far East, and mentioned confidential facts regarding the report on New Zealand’s defence activities prepared for the Government by LieutenantGeneral Sir Guy Williams.