THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. WEDNESDAY MAY 25, 1949. An Unedifying Compromise

Northern Advocate, 25 May 1949, Page 4

THE NORTHERN ADVOCATE Registered for transmission through the Post as a newspaper. WEDNESDAY MAY 25, 1949. An Unedifying Compromise

The Prime Minister was placed in an invidious and inglorious position by the Labour Party Conference yesterday. Mr Fraser, profiting by experience, and possessing inside knowledge which attendance at momentous gatherings of Empire and international statesmen has provided, is convinced that if any country, not excepting New Zealand, is to safeguard itself it must be prepared to offer the maximum resistance of which it is capable. He also believes—for he told the Labour Conference so yesterday—that 19 out of 20 people in the Dominion would condemn the Government if it did not make adequate provision in time. Yet in spite of a. declaration that New Zealanders would literally be criminals if they did not take every step to protect their shores, backed by vigorous expression of patriotic sentiments beyond reproach, he was forced to retreat from the position he had taken up when he moved a resolution. The third clause of the motion was: ‘‘That the conference request the •'Government to use all the resources' of the country, including compulsory national service, if the Government, after exploring all possibilities and alternatives, is convinced that such a measure is essential to the defence and preservation of our people, our country the Commonwealth." This proposal, if carried, would have enabled the Government; even if it ctid not already possess the necessary power, to decree compulsory military training, but at this point the Prime Minister was checked by the submission of an amendment: “That clause 3 should be deleted and replaced by a clause reading: ‘The conference reasserts its opposition to peacetime conscription and demands the equal conscription of wealth in war.'” This amendment brought the conference to the crossroads, and the humiliation offered to the Prime Minister might have been expected to bring from him an ultimatum that the delegates would have to choose between him and the compulsory national service of which he and the members of the Government have expressed approval. Instead of taking this high ground, Mr Fraser and the delegates who wished to postpone an evil day apparently conferred to some purpose. for later in the afternoon the Prime Minister obtained leave to withdraw clause 3 of his original

motion and replace it by one which provided that “if all the resources of the country for the preservation of ouir people, our country and ( our Commonwealth . . . are not available without compulsory service the Government should be requested to obtain fhe views of the electors by a referendum.”

This.way out of a pressing emergency was obviously welcomed, by the conference, which carried Mr Fraser’s amended motion by 600 votes to 8, after the amendment opposing conscription had been withdrawn.

It is difficult to imagine a more unedifying spectacle than that staged by the conference, and Mr Fraser and his Government may well lament that they have been wounded in the house of their friends.

sorry affair, however, is that, for sory affair, however, is that, for tactical reasons, Mr Fraser refused to throw -down the gauntlet to the conference .and stand by a defence policy the need for which, in the present unsettled state of affairs in the Pacific, he and his Ministers know is essential

It is of the utmost importance that there should be demonstrated by the units of the Commonwealth a determination that their citizens should be trained in peacetime to meet any threat of an aggressive nation. Mr Fraser has stood out prominently among the statesmen of the British Commonwealth as an upholder of Empire security, and the Labour Conference has placed him in an unhappy position by forcing him to refer to the people by way of referendum an issue which lies definitely within the province of the Government.

Mr Fraser may have appeased*the delegates to the Labour Conference by acting as he did, but he certainly hak 'not appeased public opinion, especially in view of his statement last evening that if it were decided to hold a referendum on compulsory national service (which the Government would not recommend unless it was essential) he would be found leading the campaign on the affirmative side

That may well be believed, but the fact that the Prime Minister did not leave to the conference the responsibility of carrying or defeating his original motion throws a searching light upon the part the Labour Conference plays in the government of the Dominion.