CALL FOR UNITED ACTION

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 21 June 1940, Page 4

CALL FOR UNITED ACTION

WORK AND STILL MORE WORK

MR SEMPLE’S TASK [United Press Association] WELLINGTON. This Day. “Only one force can bring us out of this conflict successfully. That is work and still more work, effort and still greater effort,” said the the Minister of National Service and Repatriation, the Hon. R. Semple, in an interview. Pettifogging industrial dispute.*, the seeking of concessions here and there, and profiteering of any kind had to go. “I am fully conscious of the great responsibility and ramifications of the task that has been entrusted to me. and that it will absorb all the energy and strength I possess,” the Minister said. “I will give them unstintingly. I cannot do much unless I get the co-operation necessary for maximum efficiency. That will mean common understanding on the part of the people. I have great powers under the regulations, but it is not my wish to use them unless I am compelled to do so.” After a lifetime’s experience of men, Mr Semple added, he was convinced that voluntary service was always the best. He believed that when people put their shoulders to the wheel voluntarily the results were better and the national machine worked more smoothly, but the compulsory powers were there if it necessary to use them. ALL OUR ENERGIES “If I am driven to the position where I have to use the compulsory powers I will do it without fear or favour,” said the Minister. “I am quite satisfied that every thinking man and woman is fully alive to the fact that we will need all our strength, all our resources, all our energies, and all our business capacity to build this country into one great organised people for the common objectives of giving every possible assistance to the Mother Country in the titanic and dreadful struggle in which we are all engaged, and so that we in this country can withstand any test that may come our way.” The workers of England had responded magnificently to the call for duty by Mr Bevin, who had a similar Ministerial task in Britain, Mr Semple continued, and he called on the workers of New Zealand to follow the noble and courageous lead set by the English working men. They were working not 40 hours a week, but 24 hours a day and seven days a week. The Minister made it plain that workers would have to go where the work was to be done. There could be no such thing as a man choosing his place; he had to fit into the team and pull his weight. CONFIDENCE IN PEOPLE • “New Zealanders are a people with a common destiny, and are called on to fight for their very existence,” the Minister said. “If we succeed posterity will bless us. If we fail posterity will curse us and we will deserve its curses, but I am satisfied that we will receive its blessings because I have complete confidence in the people of this country. I know their hearts are sound and their judgment is all that could be desired. lam convinced that the workers, the women, and the captains of industry will respond. The call is for united action to protect our collective destiny, for if we fail we may all be engulfed in a bondage of slavery —the worst the world has even known."