THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1941 WAGING TOTAL WAR

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23995, 19 June 1941, Page 8

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1941 WAGING TOTAL WAR

A civilian effort comparable with that which soldiers are called upon to exert on the field of battle is the objective set by the Federal Prime Minister, Mr. Menzies, in his courageous outline of a new war policy for Australia. Mr. Menzies has seen for himself the bombed cities of Britain and the magnificent courage with which British people have faced hardship and death. He has heard the call of the troops for equipment and still more equipment, and has witnessed the prodigious efforts put forth in the factories of Britain to reduce the menacing margin held against us in the material aids to war. But these British factories are actually in the front line of battle. They are just as much military objectives as Crete or Solium or Tobruk ; their workers are just as much exposed to the risks of war as the men in the Army of the Nile. It is thus the duty of every part of the British Empire to organise itself industrially for its full share in the battle. Factories must be diverted to war purposes and war materials produced to the maximum capacity of machines and labour, so that the load which has been cheerfully shouldered by the workers of Britain may to some extent be lightened and so that total production of arms and munitions throughout the Empire may more quickly reach the level at which Britain will be able to claim superiority over a powerful enemy. That is the primary purpose of industry in total war. Industrial mobilisation is in the forefront of Mr. Menzies' plans. He has not sought to apply military conscription in Australia; even if he wished to do so, political differences within the Commonwealth would probably constitute an ugly obstacle. But in his demand for a total diversion in Australia to a wartime economj', Mr. Menzies is taking action without which even military conscription is not complete. Under such an economy, he admits, every individual right and comfort must be placed in pawn, to be redeemed only by a bending of national energies exclusively to the purposes of war. The manufacture of goods for purely civilian consumption and the provision of services for purely civilian needs must be restricted, and the labour thus freed concentrated on those industrial plants and those services which will directly assist the war effort. A programme of this nature is not supplementary but complementary to the enlistment and training of armies. Mr. Menzies therefore commands Australia to extend its efforts to total war. lie asks for a co-operative endeavour under the direction of the Government and for the active support of his Labour opponents in a programme which permits of no halfmeasures. The lead has been given and it will not be Mr. Menzies' fault if the Australian people are politically distracted to an easier but less honourable path. All of the powers now sought by Mr. Menzies have been held by ouiown for more than a year, but they have been applied with a melancholy lack of decision and purpose. Men have been conscripted for military service, wealth conscripted over and above high taxation for civil spending; yet in the essential sphere of industrial mobilisation and an acceptance of total methods in total war, the Government has held its hand. In a time of crisis it is content to measure sacrifices against votes. The truth is that the Government is answerable not to the people but to a small group which has set itself in authority over a section of the people. Surveying Labour's defeat at the recent municipal elections, Mr. Arthur Cook, general secretary of the New Zealand Workers' Union, laid the blame on the Government's leaders, "all of whom appear to be concentrating on one single objective—New Zealand's war efijort." "A very laudable objective indeed," Mr. Cook added, "but ... if the people of New Zealand are to hold what they have won under Labour's administration, all Ministers of the Crown will have to give part of their time to organisational work. ... If they concentrate solely on the war effort, our opponents . . . will slowly but surely undermine the Government." That is a measure of the support which the Government can expect from its own organised supporters. Winning the war means nothing so long as we can accept as a matter of course the sacrifice of others. Small wonder, then, that Mr. Menzies' clarion call to action awakes on this side of the Tasman echoes of frustration and despair at the inability of a Government to provide leadership which will inspire the united will of the people.