CANBERRA DESERTED
CAUSTIC MR. HUGHES CANBERRA, Jan. 4 Jhe Minister for the Xavy, Mr. Hughes, to-day blamed ' high dignitaries of the service departments and some Ministers for the Government's desertion of Canberra, and the decision to organise the war etiojrt from Melbourne. ''The high dignitaries ort the land, on the sea. and in the air have their homes in Melbourne, and their bridge and their golf; and to suggest to them that they might be removed to Canberra —■ well, it might interfere with their plans," said Mr. Hughes. "They get a lot of support and sympathy from some Ministers, too, because their views appear so often to coincide.
"1 see nothing against Government from Canberra. They say that it is necessary to have "War Cabinet meetings in Melbourne because the service departments are there, but to-day with, teleprinters and secret lines I can make contact with an officer in Victoria Barracks, Melbourne—a regular warren of a building—in quicker time than it takes an active officer to walk from one end of the building to the other. *'of course in the last war we governed from Melbourne, but then it was the seat of government. We did not go wandering around the country."
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Bibliographic details
New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23859, 9 January 1941, Page 8
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202CANBERRA DESERTED New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23859, 9 January 1941, Page 8
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