PERSONAL CONTACTS

Evening Star, Issue 22209, 11 December 1935, Page 10

PERSONAL CONTACTS

CABINET MEETS DEPARTMENT HEADS CLOSE COLLABORATION INDICATED. [Special to the * Star.’] WELLINGTON, December 11. The heads of all the Government departments met the whole Labour Ministry, on the Prims Minister’s invitation, at Parliament Buildings. “ This may bo a bit unorthodox,” he said, “ but we wanted to meet you and get your co-operation, though we are sure of that beforehand.” • During- the course of his speech the Prime Minister frequently stressed the point that, while Cabinet could evolve a policy, the public service made it operative, and only by co-operation could it be effective. “We want, in the most humble way, to say that we are not big enough to do a job which only the people can do themselves. We are not seeking to establish a dictatorship, either in industry or in government. In the finish it is only by cooperation that we' call get the best service.” . Mr Savage invited the Public Service heads freely ,to approach Ministers, around whom there were no barbed wire entanglements, and to express freely their opinions. The Government saw no reason for destroying rights of citizenship because a man was a public servant. There was not a service which he would call unnecessary- and which required to be wiped out. There might he changes, but they were living in an age of change, and the Government wanted to make those changes with the least possible disturbance.