The Grey River Argus FRIDAY, March 20th, 1942. WAR DEBATE.

Grey River Argus, 20 March 1942, Page 4

The Grey River Argus FRIDAY, March 20th, 1942. WAR DEBATE.

More than an open parliamentary debate .on the war seems necessary to convince anybody of the Opposition claim for a yet greater share of governmental power. It'is now harder to see where the country would gain if they were granted their plea for seats in the Civil Cabinet than it was when they first made that plea. They have their full say in the war effort becaus'e they have thein full representation in the War Cabinet. They even admit the succ'ess and improvement of the war effort. Towards it their main contribution in Parliament—leaving aside -the War Cabinet—boils down simply to a bald claim for governmental power, a thing for which Party has no shadow of a mandate. The debate yesterday in Parliament reveals but a single object as that of the Opposition in this desire of their’s to wield power in the sphere of civic administration. They want to see the big stick used upon the workers’ backs. They ignore, and expect the public i.o ignore the obvious fact that already the main weight of the war effort rests upon the workers’ backs. The National Party does not speak for more than a definitely minor section of the people, and yet its members have the 'effrontery to assert ninety per cent, of the whole community want, above anything else, to see them realise their wish to gain offices additional to those they enjoy in_ the War Cabinet. The assertion will not ■wash. A warning against a change of government is given by its very advocates wh’en they declare hours of labour should be indiscriminately lengthened, social services further cut, and the

workers penalised in any industrial dispute unless they are content to let their rights go by default. That is precisely the threat of the big stick, a thing that might do more to nullify the Avar effort than even the enemy could, if there were any administrative shortcoming which the Opposition might help to remedy, they ought to bo able at least to state that shortcoming. There is nothing lacking in the financing of the war effort, or the War Cabinet would say so. The War Cabinet is doing decidely the. most spending now. In point of fact, the National Party is alone in raising the party question. It is not all out for unity in the war effort, or it would realise itkelf as the sole obstacle thereto. It does not demonstrate unity by asking the Government to bow to any set of fault-finders who may choose here or there to work up a frothy agitation about the war effort. It is indeed to be sincerely hoped that the Opposition will devote a greater endeavour to support the administration of the Dominion and forget in this crisis the desire for a change in the administration.