N.Z. CABINET'S AILNIGHT VIGIL

Northern Advocate, 11 December 1936, Page 8

N.Z. CABINET'S AILNIGHT VIGIL

(.Special to “Nortnern Advocate.’' l WELLINGTON, This Day.

At 6.30 a.m. today the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, and the New Zealand Cabinet ended an all night vigil, which will be looked back on as the most extx-aordinary in the Dominion’s ‘Parliamentary history, comparable only with the famous Seddonian episode of the Cabinet meeting which devised measures to save the Bank of New Zealand, and that of a later date, when leading bankers remained in touch with the ForbesCoates Coalition Cabinet until 2 a.m., their departure at that hour being followed by an announcement to waiting journalists that the rate of exchange would be immediately raised to 25 per cent. On the present occasion. Ministers, except for brief . adjournment, have sat from yesterday morning at 10.30 until this morning at 6.30, the longest interval being four hours last night, prior to resuming deliberations at 10 o’clock.

Great Official Activity. To outside observers there was great official activity, but an embarrassing lack of finality in the situation, though for many hours the outcome was well understood.

These things have to be done with care, and in conformity with the wonderful timetable which has been arranged, confided a member of Cabinet at a late stage of the long wait. Events were happening on a winter’s afternoon in England while the Cabinets of the Empire under the Southern Cross sat throughout the long night.

A Vivid Contrast

Official despatches are cabled in code, involving a slow process of decoding. This was responsible for a most vivid contrast in the methods, when, at an early hour, Ministers gathered round a short wave set in Parliament Buildings and listened to the broadcast, which was instantaneously transmitted across the world, containing the King’s abdication statement, and Mr Baldwin’s statement to the House of Commons, long before it could be officially available through the only channel on which the Government could take action by Die issue of a Gazette Extraordinary, proclaiming the historic change in the Monarchy.