WAR COUNCIL

Evening Post, Volume CXXIX, Issue 146, 21 June 1940, Page 9

WAR COUNCIL

FIRST MEETING

UTILISATION OF MAN-POWER

Every member of the War Council invited by the Prime Minister to carry on its work attended the first meeting in Parliament Building this morning. The chiefs of the three fighting services were also present. The Prime Minister (the Hon. P. Fraser), who presided, thanked the members of the council for coming to the assistance of the nation in its hour of need, and suggested that the actual meeting place, the Cabinet room furnished with selected Canadian timbers, the gift of the sister Dominion, was highly appropriate. The Prime Minister discussed the tasks ahead of the council, and spoke of the satisfaction of the Government and the people of the Dominion at the safe arrival of the Second Echelon, including the Maori Battalion,- at a British port. After detailing the Dominion's progressive achievement in its war efforts, the' Prime Minister stated that he could rely on the members of the council, who had such wide experience in various activities, and he could not imagine a body which could be more helpful to the Government.

The chiefs of the staffs of the three fighting services addressed the council on their respective activities.

One of the immediate matters for decision by the council will be the most effective utilisation of the manpower of the Dominion in relation to every phase of war effort.