Greymouth Evening Star. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1947. Mr Fraser At Home And Abroad

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 September 1947, Page 6

Greymouth Evening Star. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1947. Mr Fraser At Home And Abroad

JUDGED by a report from Wellington yesterday, Air Fraser, by bis utterances in Australia, has apparently astonished trade union leaders as much as the remainder of the people of New Zealand. “The statements which the Australians think most remarkable,” reports the N.Z.P.A. special correspondent in Sydney, “are.that New Zealanders will readily work longer hours to help the British people and. that among the most helpful delegates on the Aid-to-Britain Committee were those of the miners, the New Zealand Workers’ Union, and the Federation of Labour.” .A Sydney paper carried a cartoon depicting Air Fraser exhorting a reclining gentleman who is labelled “Australia.” Air Fraser is gesturing towards New Zealand, from where a stream of shipping labelled “New Zealand Food for Britain” disappears over the horizon. The Australian lies on a wool bale surrounded by boxes of fruit, eggs, stacks of wheat, bags of flour, and carcases, and leisurely eats an apple. The caption reads, “For Heaven’s sake stop boasting, Fraser—l’m carefully chewing the whole matter over.”

All of this would, of course, be very gratifying to New Zealanders, if it had some basis in reality. After all, it is not so very often that they are held up as an example to Australians, but it is all so very embarrassing when we are conscious of our shortcomings as exemplars. Air Fraser seems to have taken expressions of the will to aid Britain as something already accomplished. In addition his remarks on the helpfulness of certain representatives at the Aid-to-Britain conference are not in line with the facts. When the Production and Trade. Committee’s report came before the conference, the only tAvo dissentients were the representatives of the watersiders and freezing workers, without whose whole-hearted cooperation any increased drive to supply additional food to Britain would be largely nullified. Leadership Required

Mr Fraser may have gained, impressions at the Aid-to-Britain conference which the reports of the proceedings failed to give. That may have been one reason lor his optimism as expressed, when he reached Australia, but the reception that his remarks there have had in union circles in his own country would suggest that his optimism, is ill-founded. It is stated now, for instance, that the union delegates at the Wellington conference did not speak for the bodies whom they represented as they were not given time for consultations. It is a reasonable expectation that l\Fr Fraser, on his return, will be asked a few pointed questions. There is undoubtedly in the community generally a. desire to help Britain. Il is equally apparent, however, that the appreciation, of the need for action to render that help is not so widespread. What is required is strong and imaginative leadership. The plain fact of the present situation is that we must all work harder, and work in such a, way as to preclude a further increase in the cost of production, which is, after all, another way of saying the cost of living. The present vital .needs of the country should not be used as a lever in an endeavour to gain sectional benefits'at the expense of the rest of the community. To those who are apparently unable to see past their own selfish interests it should be pointed out that the appeal for harder work in order to aid Britain need not necessarily be considered solely as an appeal, to their generosity. It is also an appeal to their self-interest, for unless present economic trends are reversed their own future standard of living will be placed in jeopardy.