DOMINION'S WAR TASK

New Zealand Herald, Volume 79, Issue 24212, 2 March 1942, Page 7

DOMINION'S WAR TASK

CALL TO GREATER EFFORT BROADCAST BY MR. HOLLAND "Nothing could be a greater danger to a maximum war effort than the present widely-held view that criticism of any phase of our war effort is tantamount to subversion," said Mr. S. G. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, in a broadcast National Service talk last night. "The greatest deterrents to inefficiency, waste and extravagance are criticism and exposure. In New Zealand we have tended to stiflle and suppress criticism and to apply far too much secrecy to discussion of our war effort. None of us is without some measure of responsibility for this. If in this respect we have made mistakes, let us profit from them and not repeat the error." In discussing the enormous drain by the armed forces on manpower, Mr. Holland said it was the plain duty of the rest to take their places and make up the leeway, which meant that those who had not been called up for the forces would have to work as they had never worked before. The word "sacrifice" had been very much used in war propaganda. Sacrifice did not mean working harder and longer and being fully paid for it. It meant going without things one had been accustomed to regrfrd as absolute necessities. It meant work regardless of pay; long hours regardless of overtime; giving more of people's incomes for war purposes; lending more and still more money, regardless of interest; less leisure and more work. Unquestionably, it would mean people having to do work they had never dreamed of doing before. _ It meant that people would be required to work in factories and on farms to ensure that goods and services essential to both the civilian population and the defence forces were fully maintained It meant that those who had gone into retirement, or semi-retirement, would have to take up work again, if they were physically ablo to do so. Townspeople would have to give farmers a hand to get their crops harvested 'and their fields cultivated. Soldiers wore out clothing and boots at a phenomenal rate, so civilians would 'have to make clothes and footwear last longer.