WAR REGULATIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 5 December 1940, Page 7

WAR REGULATIONS

PROTESTS IN HOUSE ... . MR. FRASER'S DEFENCE [PER press association.] • WELLINGTON, December 4. - Discussion on the War Regulations occupied the attention of the House to-night, urgency being granted to allow the debate to continue after 10.30 p.m., if necessary. Opening the debate, Mr. F. W. Doidge (Nat., Tauranga), said he appreciated the action of the Prime Minister in giving the House an opportunity to discuss these regulations. More laws, he contended, were being made by Orders-in-Council than by Parliament, and he was sure that not one member of the House in ten knew one tenth of the regulations which had been passed. Speaking of regulations dealing with price control, he said these governed the whole work of the Price Tribunal, and he also mentioned waterfront regulations and patriotic purposes'regulations as other important measures in which Parliament had had no say. He expressed the opinion that the last mentioned had throttled patriotic effort. Mr. Fraser: They are the best system in operation in any country. Mr. Doidge continued that people were only now beginning to give freely. They would give even more freely if they had complete trust in the Government. He also referred to regulations providing for the establishment of the Home Guard, and said everyone knew of confusion and chaos which had resulted at the beginning of the scheme. The Minister in charge of the Home Guard had been forced to stump the country to get this organisation on a proper footing. Mr. Doidge said, however, that he must admit that the Minister (Mr. Semple) had made a splendid job of it. Mr. Doidge contended that people nowadays often broke laws unwittingly through lack of knowledge of regulations. Under these regulations every Minister had become a dictator and every head of department a Lord High Executioner. Mr. Doidge asked, why suppress the journal “Jehovah’s Witness.” He could not understand anyone reading it. He concluded that people were being buried under an avalanche of regulations. The Prime Minister said that the last speaker had missed the whole purport of the War Regulations. There might be an excellent case against previous Governments for the issue of too many regulations, but that was of academic interest. This country was now ; at war, and it was necessary that the Government should have certain powers. Mr. Doidge: It is under the guise of war that you are doing all these things. Mr. Fraser: I didn’t hear the Hon. gentleman making that point in his speech! The Hon. gentleman failed hopelessly to do anything like that and he went on piling up a spurious, untenable case.

He had scarcely mentioned the War Regulations continued Mr. Fraser, but he had mentioned various regulations which the Government had been forced to introduce at'the request of thejpeople whose livelihood had been affected. Whatever Government was in power during the war period, it must. .have authority to make regulations ;to deal with the situations which might arise. Mr. W. J. Polson (Nat., Stafford). It is not the right to make the Regulations that we are complaining about, but it is the use being made of them. Mr. Fraser: If it can be established that they are being wrongly used, then that would be a strong case. JEHOVAH'S WITNESS. Speaking of the Jehovah’s Witness, Mr. Fraser said that, in normal times, all that the Government was concerned about was that there should be no breaches of peace, but, when we came to a war period then it was essential that the people should be united, and that there should be no sectarian dissension. He had taken it upon himself to appeal to various religious organisations for unity, and to avoid anything that would lead to recriminations. We were all in the war, whether we were Catholics, Protestants, Baptists, Presbyterians, or Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Mr. Fraser, replying to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, added that he was hoping that the Attorney-General could come to some arrangement with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. He did not doubt their sincerity, or the question of their right to worship according to their conscience; The Government had no quarrel with them, and he hoped that something could be done whereby that organisation could worship like the other churches in a normal way, and not do anything against the regulations. Mr. Fraser admitted that certainly great powers were given under the War Emergency Regulations. They were a sacred trust, and they were not embarked upon lightly. Adequate reasons were given for the various Regulations, and it was better that some slight inconvenience should be caused to thousands of people than to find a blow struck at some of the country’s vital points. Mr. Fraser appealed to members to refrain from petty and irritating criticism as far as the country’s war effort was concerned, but the Opposition, he said, had the opportunity, both in secret session, and in open session to put forward suggestions and to criticise anything they considered a weakness, in order to help the country to go forward to victory.

MR.. HOLLAND’S CRITICISM. The Leader of the Opposition, Mr. S. G. Holland, said that, although the country was at war, Parliament was still the place where the voice of the people was to be expressed, and they would do the country a great disservice if they handed over to the Civil Service a job that was their prerogative and their duty. Mr. Holland said he would have no hesitation in saying that the Regulations which the House was discussing had been employed in a number of directions and on numerous occasions to do things that Parliament itself would not countenance. Mr. Fraser said that if Mr. Holland .would indicate any particular Regulation that had been tabled on which fee wished to test the feeling of the House, he would be given the opportunity.Mr. Holland replied that that was a concession, and it showed that the debate, was worth while. Continuing,

he contended that it was time that, as a people, they stopped fooling and got on with the job. What the coun-try-had to learn, or to re-learn, was a simple thing, that its prosperity, depended on hard work. , The Minister of Labour (Mr. Webb) said that no regulation-affect-ing labour had been introduced, unless it had been thoroughly investigated by the Industrial. Emergency Council, and there-was no Committee doing a greater national service. So far as these regulations were concerned, the Minister said, those in industry were doing a magnificent job, and where commodities were short, they were working day and night to provide, extra commodities. The workers were responding splendidly, but there was a lot more to be done. He appealed for unity, and said that the Government wanted to, feel that whatever it did would be for the common good of the British Commonwealth. . Mr. J. A. Lee expressed an objection to the speech made by the Leader of the Opposition, on the grounds that it conveyed an impression that New Zealand was a nation of slackers. The sum total of our production showed we were an industrious people, but the best could not be got out.of workers if resentment were created in their hearts. Mr. Lee also referred to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. He said he had read literature of this sect. He considered, that’ while a lot of it appeared fantastic, he could not read into it anything subversive. Mr. Holland said that he had been grossly misrepresented by Mr. Lee. He had. paid repeated tributes to the workers of New Zealand. The Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Lee Martin, characterised the Opposition’s criticism of the Regulations as unfair. He said the manner in which they have operated showed that the Government was receiving its fullest co-operation from the dairying industry. Mr. W. J. Polson (Nat., Stratford), said the War Regulations should be closely watched. What the country wanted from the Government at present was leadership in making the utmost effort so that this war could be won. The Attorney-General (Mr. Mason) briefly replied to the debate, and the House rose at 12.45 a.m. BAKERY CONTROL. AUCKLAND, December 5. “Control of the bakery business is a war-time measure, designed to reduce petrol consumption and costs, and rationalise. the industry so that the drain on man-power foi’ war purposes will cause less dislocation that would otherwise be the case,” states the Minister of Industries (Mr Sullivan), in a letter replying to an inquiry by the secretary of the Auck .land Bakers’ Union, Mr E. J. Watson. Replying to rumours mentioned by Mr Watson, the Minister states that rationalisation of employment will give proper service to the public. Moreover, no strict form of zoning was being effected at the moment, although such a course might be necessary if an emergency compelled it. No" new bakery might commence operations without his consent.