WAR EFFORT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20625, 28 November 1941, Page 4

WAR EFFORT

LABOUR’S RECORD

PEACE-TIME VOTES

SERVICES EXTENSION The claim that the Labour Government in New Zealand had done more than any other Government would have done to place the country on a footing of preparation for war, and that when war came it gave precedence to the war effort over everything else, was made by Mr. D. W. Coleman, M.P., addressing a meeting of Bay of Plenty electors in the MakarakaMatawhero Hall last evening on behalf of Mr. Chas. Mills, Labour candidate in the Bay of Plenty by-election. He stated that when the Labour Government came into power in 1935 defence activities were practically at a standstill. In the first three years it increased the defence vote from £1,500,000 to £3,000,000 per annum, the latter figure being the highest peace-time vote in the Dominions history. It found in 1935 not one air force plane in the country, but in 19{37 it established the Royal New Zealand Air Force and by 1939 it was being equipped with modern planes, aerodromes and technical equipment. Operational stations, training schools, a repair base and store depot were established. Comparison With 1914-18 Since the outbreak of the war, the Dominion had been able to do itself full credit as a result, mainly, of the groundwork laid down by the Labour Government, Mr. Coleman said- There were only 340,000 men of militaiy age in the country, but to date 80,000 men had gone on active service, or into training for overseas, while Terntorials, National Military Reserve and Home Guard enlistments totalled 138 000, and civil defence units such as E.P.S. and W.W.A.S. accounted for another 95,000.

After two years of war, New Zealand had 313,000 men and women organised for defence, whereas in the last war, the passage of two years found 65,000 men in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, and no civil defence or other reserves in existence. The record of New Zealand in naval and air force recruiting, though necessarily on a smaller scale, was equally good, and the Dominion had earned the utmost credit for the value of its war effort, said Mr. Coleman. All this had been accomplished under a Government which the Opposition had declared was opposed to defence. The speaker also paid a tribute to the work of the merchant marine, in which New Zealand was strongly represented. _