PETROL RATION

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23995, 19 June 1941, Page 9

PETROL RATION

DRASTIC REDUCTION

MR. MENZIES' PROGRAMME

AUSTRALIAN LABOUR REACTION (Rcrd. 11.40 p.m.) CANBERRA, June 1 >

The first major effect of Mr. Menzies' speech was the announcement to-day hv the Minister of Supply, Sir Frederick Stewart, of drastic petrol cuts, chiefly affecting private motorists, whose present supply is to he cut by half, limiting them to 1000 miles a year, the new ration becoming operative in August. Taxis: and private hir<- cars will hj" further reduced to 10 per cent of the original rationim; scale. Commercial vehicles will receive only 00 per cent, o! the original ration, and omnibus and service ears will lie cut by 15 per cent Corresponding reductions will apply to farm and miscellaneous classes of vehicles ;ind motor-boats. Motoring interests say the new rationing pian wiil sound the dcathIcneli of private motoring. Details are being worked out for the production of new types of aircraft in the Commonwealth, and for the importation of more aeroplanes from IJritain and the I'liited States. Trades Unions' Concern It is ejected that the programme announced In Mr. Menzic.s will be generally acceptable to the Labour I'arty. The Labour leader. Mr. .J, Curtin. withheld colllmelll on the speech, which is likely to lie reviewed by the Labour caucus. Trades union leaders expressed concern at Mr. Menzies' "threatened coercive measures'' against their leaders The secretary of the New South Wales Labour Council, Mr. H. King, voiced the opinion of most Labour officials when he said the Labour movement was not prepared to submit kindly to attacks on the liberty of trades unionists. He added that if workers displaced by industrial restriction were not absorbed it would be tantamount to industrial co n sor ip t ion. "Slow in Awakening"

The Svdney Morning Herald in a leading article says: "We have been lamentably and dangerously slow in awakening to the uncompromising realities of total war, but there need be no more vain regrets lor time wasted in the past if, regardless of party or class, all Australians will now, at this supreme moment, rally to the call for unstinted work and sfyrifice in wartime. Privation in all but the necessaries of living will now settle upon Australia, but everyone who appreciates the life and death nature of the struggle and that a supreme effort is needed to win it will ask nothing else of the Government than that it proceed with all possible speed to implement the Prime Minister's declared programme." The Daily Telegraph says editorially: "Every Australian who believes that this war is worth winning will agree with the major principles laid down by Mr. Menzics. His plans for the full mobilisation of the country's industrial resources and for the 6 concentration of the national effort and wealth upon war production start from the irrefutable proposition that victory will go to the nation which is superior in equipment. The Government has declared war on privilege, disruption and, the easy-going ways of |>eace. It must be a ruthless, impartial war." SUICIDE REPORTED GERMAN BLITZ LEADER CRITICISM OVER CRETE LONDON, Jnne IS The report persists in German military circles that General List, com-mander-in-chief in the Balkans, committed suicide after receiving sharp criticisms from Berlin on the handling of the attack on Crete, says the Times' Istanbul correspondent. The news comes first hand from a trustworthy informant in Greece, and, although it is impossible to confirm it, German officers are certainly discussing it. Very large nunfbers of German wounded were taken from Crete, taxing Athens hospitals to the utmost. The correspondent mentions reports that

the Germans' morale in Greece 5s very low. The officers' dejection and the troops' lack of enthusiasm may partly explain the movement of German troops from the Balkans to places nearer home. The Germans' superiority in numbers, their perfect organisation and their robot-like behaviour when in action have been responsible for their successes. Prisoners taken from Crete included ]0 Cretan women wearing Greek uniforms, who were sent to Germany because Hitler wished to see them. CLOSER CO-OPERATION CANADA AND UNITED STATES (Reed. fi. 1 •"> p.m.) WASHINGTON, June 17 The State Department, to-day announced tho appointment of joint ,United States-Canadian committees to advise on greater economic co-operation in defence production, and also in reducing post-war economic dislocation.