TIME FOR ACTION

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 136, 10 June 1940, Page 11

TIME FOR ACTION

MR. SEMPLE'S ADDRESS

DOMINION AND THE WAR

Petty differences and party politics should be burietf. declared the Minister Nof Public Works (the Hon. R. Semple) in his address to a meeting in the Capitol Theatre, Miramar, last night, when, he spoke about the Dominion's war effort and emphasised the importance of unity. The struggle, he said, was a titanic one, and New Zealand was going to do its duty. He had confidence in the people of New Zealand.

"Let us put our backs.to the wall, our faces to the.sun, and with brave hearts and unconquerable souls make this vow before God and man that there can be no compromise with a gang of international murderers arid burglars, and that there can be no surrender," Mr. Semple said. New Zealand, he said, could do nothing else but answer the call to contribute its quota to prevent the onslaught that threatened to engulf the world. New Zealand's first line of defence today was not here. It was in France and England. He offered no apologies for the part the Dominion was taking in the terrible conflict.

"Mr. Savage said, 'Where England goes, we go,'" Mr. Semple continued. "We' cannot, we dare not, separate ourselves from the British Commonwealth. We have passed an 'all-in' Bill1 for the mobilisation of all the wealth and all the manhood of the country. I am very proud to say that at the two Labour conferences, representing the whole working class of the country, the response was magnificent. Labour has spoken and has said to New Zealand and the rest of the world: 'We are with you 100 per cent. We will work, we will pay, if needs be we will die for this country.'"

Recruits to date for the Army, Air Force, Navy, and home defences totalled 51,900. Since 1935 the Government had built' 99 aerodromes, and in building them had shifted 10,000,000 yards of spoil.

Mr. Semple said the people of Miramar had had their letter-boxes filled with poisonous documents purporting to prove that he, along with . other Ministers, had deserted their former principles, that at one time they were pacifists. , NO PROFITEERING.

He quoted extracts from a pamphlet which he wrote then, and said the principles in the recently-passed Bill were what he had advocated during the last war. From 1914 to 1918 profiteering had been rampant in this country, and profiteers here had extracted £20,000,000 from the British consumer. There had not been one single copper extracted from the British, consumer during this war.

"I stood for those principles in 1914----18," Mr.1 Semple said after reading from the pamphlet. "I have nothing to retract and no apologies to make to anybody in the country for my attitude in the last war. I was never a pacifist. I won't squeal if I come out of this war without a copper to my name, without a roof over my head, as long as we can hand on to our children the liberty we have enjoyed."

A motion thanking Mr. Semple for his address and congratulating the Government for conducting the affairs of the country and the war effort in a vigorous manner, and on the measures taken to defend the country, not only from the enemy without but also from the enemy within, was carried.