The Northern Advocate Daily “NORTHLAND FIRST” Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper MONDAY, MAY 27, 1940. New Zealand Closes The Ranks

Northern Advocate, 27 May 1940, Page 4

The Northern Advocate Daily “NORTHLAND FIRST” Registered for transmission through the post as a Newspaper MONDAY, MAY 27, 1940. New Zealand Closes The Ranks

r-i OLLOWING upon its decision to call Parliament together p on Thursday next, which is a fortnight earlier than had been previously notified, the Prime Minister last evening made a welcome announcement that the Government intends to ask Parliament to set up a War Council in order to intensify the prosecution of the war. Mr. Fraser said that the War Cabinet would consist of the members of the present Government who have been dealing especially with war affairs, the Official Opposition, representatives of organised employers and workers and the farming industry. Details of the proposal will probably not be announced until Parliament meets, but there will be a widespread feeling of satisfaction that the principle of setting up an executive representative of all sections of the community is to be given effect. In this respect the example of Great Britain has been followed in large measure, though it is true that the Bi itish Government as well as the War Cabinet, is a non-party organisation. It would be doing a disservice to this country to suggest that the parties which constitute the Parliament of New Zealand will manifest a spirit of partisanship in the face of a peril such as the British Empire has never faced in the past, and it may be confidently expected that when Parliament meets both Government and Opposition will exercise that spirit of goodwill and patriotism required to enable New Zealand to mobilise in the quickest and most effective way the manpower and material resources of the country. The bringing about of such a state of unity will be hastened if everybody will realise that oil, not sand, is a necessity for the effective running of machinery of any kind. It is not in humans to achieve perfection, and members of the public should make the fullest allowance for human frailty For that reason, everybody, no matter what their views on political questions generally may be, should be extremely guarded in their vocal attitude towards those with whom they may not have been able to see eye to eye in the past. For a coalition cabinet to be of any real use there must be a coalition people if New Zealand is to play worthily its part m securing victory for the Empire, for. as the late Mr. Savage said when making a deathbed appeal to New Zealanders to put forth their whole strength in the Empire’s cause, “If Great Britain loses, all is lost.”

This is a fact which must be given the first place in our thoughts when measures for the protection of the Empire are under consideration. The existence of a Government in which all sections of the people of this country are directly represented, is something which fairness and ordinary commonsense demand, and we are convinced that when a representative executive makes a call to the people and gives a lead, there will be none to raise a dissenting voice. The Government proposes to take all embracing power, which is to be used, in the language of Mr. Fraser, “as required,” and it is right, under such circumstances, that a Government possessed of such power should be representative of the people' as a whole. New Zealand is facing up to its responsibilities, which admittedly have increased tremendously during the past few days, and everybody is duty bound to facilitate measures designed to discharge those responsibilities.