STRONGER LINE URGED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 167, 14 June 1940, Page 2

STRONGER LINE URGED.

MR LEE ON CAMPAIGN. WELLINGTON, June, 14. An appeal for Ministers of Defence and Man-power “who look, talk and think like returned soldiers” war, made' by Mr J. A. Lee (Democratic Labour, Grey Lynn) when lie. advanced suggestions for the more efficient prosecution.of. the,,vDomihion’s :war effort. “Get a Minister of Defence who sounds like a soldier,” Mr Lee said, He knew that the Minister of Defence bad the best. will in the world and was putting the whole of his energy into the business, and he knew that the Minister of Public Works, who had just become almost Minister of Man-power, had considerable persuasive ability, but lie suggested that the Government should get Ministers of Defence and Man-power who looked, talked, and thought like returned soldiers, and who sounded as though they had the background calculated to rally men. “Get, somebody in charge of the Publicity' Department who knows the background, of a soldier’s life,” Mr Lee continued. “Our publicity does not exist to-dav. It is only negative.' Our publicity consists of suppressing and censoring to a far greater degree than is necessary. Wanted, a Minister of Propaganda, a Minister of Defence who looks like a Minister of Defence and a. Minister of Man-power who talks in the terms that the soldier understands.”

Later in his address, when referring to the war effort in general terms, Mr Lee said: “Except that they have served, I defy men to on the platform and inspire other 'men. No matter how sincere they are the question poises itself on the lips of everyone." ‘What did you do in the Great War?’ ”

Mr Lee suggested that the Government should set out and buy all the manufactured gold in New Zealand, including wedding rings and trinkets, offering the best possible prices so that the money realised could be used to buy, aeroplanes to help save the lives of Britons. He" proposed that the Government should take over all foreign investments, and said that nobody was guilty of greater subversive conduct than the person who oil the eve of the war transferred from New Zealand thousands of pounds and who was now sitting on these investments. “Conscript the banks and avoid piling up debt, instead of conscripting men and leaving the banks in private hands,” Mr Lee added. He proposed that the Government should turn its rationalisation proposals to insurance, and that it should' also take steps to see that the cost of living was kept in check. j “We want no' defeatism,” Mr Lee concluded. “Let nobody use the words ‘if we are defeated.’ We are not going to be defeated! That is the line.”