£750,000 A WEEK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23767, 21 September 1940, Page 13

£750,000 A WEEK

COST OF OUR EFFORT WAR CABINET'S TASK MR. HAMILTON'S COMMENT [Br TELEGRArH PRESS ASSOCIATIOV] INVERCARGILL. Friday "We are spending £750.000 a week, more than £IOO,OOO a day, on war work to-day. The War Cabinet is a team of five men contracting for and directing expenditure on a scale not exceeded by the entire Budget of the Dominion only a few years ago." said the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. A. Hamilton, a member of the War Cabinet, when interviewed in Invercargill to-night. "We have settled down to the job after the initial stage. "It is now some two months since the War Cabinet was formed," Mr. Hamilton continued. 'People often ask what we are doing and how we are getting on. I am afraid it is not the sort of business that is accompanied with full-page advertisements, but I can assure everyone thafe we are very much on the job. I would say that those who stop to think for an instant must realise the magnitude of the task. The War Cabinet directs and controls our entire war effort and the emergency regulations connected with that effort. Need for Secrecy "The work of the Cabinet in tha main is secret and the subjects and information discussed must be retained in the fewest possible hands, whether it is supplies, ships, equipment, troop movements, munitions, general organisation or information from various parts of the world. The reason for this_ is clear. That is why it is not publicised in the normal manner."

Mr. Hamilton explained that the War Cabinet normally met every day. It had met on practically every day since it was set up in July, and it had frequently sat all day. Information - received from various parts of the world was considered and replies given. Important decisions of this nature were made almost every day. All the work, was of an immediate and urgent nature. The members of the War Cabinet maintained as close touch as possible with the various training centres so as to niake contact both personal and practical.

When asked if he considered in the light of his experience on the War Cabinet that New Zealand is making and planning to make a reasonable contribution to the Empire's cause, Mr. Hamilton replied. "Emphatically, yes." "Right Up to the Dollar" "We in New Zealand had ground to make up," Mr. Hamilton continued. "Who in the Empire, the Mother Country included, has aot had ground to make up? We are making it up. Wherever New Zealand forces face the foe they will be trained and well equipped for any emergency. Every day, every hour sees further improvement in this. No stone must be left unturned. "Of course, talk will not win the war, but I want to say confidently that the plan for New Zealand's war effort will take our people right, up to the collar in the great work ahead," Mr. Hamilton continued. "The question I ask is: Do the mass of the people in New Zealand, as well as their leaders, yet realise the extreme emergency of the dire necessity? I fear sometimes that wo who are far from the shattering of bombs and the destruction of conflict are a little apt to continue the pleasure-loving peace-time ~ tempo in thought and action to-day. "I emphasise that we, must throw our full weight in the scales for victory. We have by no means reached the stage in this conflict where we have not to'exert ourselves to the utmost to succeed."