LABOUR’S OPPONENTS AND THE WAR EFFORT.

Grey River Argus, 23 May 1942, Page 8

LABOUR’S OPPONENTS AND THE WAR EFFORT.

Sir, —The third year of the war finds the New Zealand Labour Government and the people fully ■ determined to shoulder all the great responsibilities attached to the world.-wide conflict and which is drawing somewhat closer to our shores. In spite of the fact that the Leader of the Opposition is somewhat concerned at the manner in which the general run of the New Zealand people (people who work hard for little more than a bare subsistence for themselvtes and then

families) are facing up to the war. Perhaps the people who are dissatisfied with the amount of done and enthusiasm being displayed by u's could best assist New Zealand s bontiribution to the war effort by setting a fitting example. For instance. IMr. Holland might confine himself to more reasonable and intelligent utterances than he recently addressed to the electors of Temuka when he was assisting in the byelection campaign. We might remind Mr. Holland that New Zealand entered the war against the Axis powers, led by its first Labour Government, and which, in the opinion of the great mass of the people, acquitted itself much better arm more effectively than ; anv other jnartv could have done. It has, during the two and a half years of the war shouldered the responsibility of guiding and governing the Dominion while the clouds of war hung heavily over us. We have had to concentrate the best brains at our commond solely upon war activities, and with all modesty we may say that the Labour Government is conducting our war effort more vigorously

and effectively than ever any national crosis has been handled in the history of the world. The resources we are able to bring into the war effort are paramount resources. They are resources of manpower, physical and mental, without, without which all other resources would be powerless to function. The workers, by their labour and mental capacity are the very mainspring of the war effort. The members of the Labour Ministry are charged with the task of directing those resources to the best possible advantage because waste of any sort or description can onl ymean a gain to the enemy. Yet the Labour Government has not put aside entirely the programme that, in peace time, Would be its objective. • Labour’s sixth Secruity Budget recently passnrl V>xr Porlionnant n rnxrdrl nrl nmplinra-

■tion that Labour regards as essential if we are to have a war effort which demands not only that all shall giye their all, so that we may and will win, but that all shall be placed as near as possible in equality so far as a decent standard of living is concerned. Once again, our leaders, and the New Zealand Labour Party affirms its unswerving intention of maintaining its struggle against the evil forces of Nazism and Fascism and as we contiv.e the struggle Labourites everywhere will., stand firmly together with their ranks unbroken to meet and repel whatever onslaughts an enemy may attempt to inflict upon us, and upon freedomloving people everywhere. May we appeal to 'Mr. Holland and his few supporters to do likewise, It am, etc., ERNEST CLAYTON, President Caversliam Branch, N.Z. Labour Party, Dunedin Otago.