THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1943 MR. FRASER'S CASE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 80, Issue 24690, 16 September 1943, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1943 MR. FRASER'S CASE

When the Prime Minister faced an Auckland audience last "night his reception was what courtesy and recognition of his high office and achievements demanded. Disagreement with the philosophy and much of the policy Mr. Fraser expounded should blind no critic to those things which deserve tribute. For Mr. Fraser himself, his bitterest opponent could not truthfully deny that since the outbreak of war he has been unwearied in support of the nation's cause. His pledge to prosecute the war effort unflinchingly to the day of victory will be accepted unreservedly, for it is. endorsed by the record of the past four years. It is a flaw in that record that party differences have not been merged in an all-in war Government. The failure to reach this desirable end cannot be charged entirely to the Prime Minister. He favoured the move, but could not persuade his party to accept it, and was not strong enough to enforce acceptance. If the party thus missed its finest opportunity, it still has much in its war record which earns endorsement. Alone among the Dominions, New Zealand early grasped the nettle of imposing on the nation's manhood the obligation to serve in the armed forces wherever duty might call. The way it was done was criticised, because it was open to criticism, but to have done it, promptly and unflinchingly, was an act of courage. Similarly, the Government moved speedily and vigorously to marshal the full strength of the country when Japan entered the war. Criticism of detail does not cancel out the fact that the Government acted when action was imperatively demanded by circumstance.

It is fair to allow the credit items recited since Mr. Fraser, in his Auckland speech and throughout the campaign, has based his claim to support almost wholly on the record of the Government in office. Resort to the past is, however, a doubleedged weapon. In shaping and following its war policy, the Government has expressed the will of the whole people. In a great deal else, it has obeyed the dictates of only a section. It has long been obvious that real power in New Zealand resides, not in the Government or the Cabinet, but in the organised forces of industrial labour, among which the influence of a few powerful unions has been paramount. Under this system, what a coterie of union leaders decides speedily becomes what Parliament decides, because a large and obedient Labour- majority answers to the crack of the whip wielded by outsiders. Consequently, the country is confronted —and thoughtful citizens are humiliated — by the spectacle of bodies of workers defying the law and the Government without being brought effectively to book> Ministers may denounce the trouble-makers, but when the time comes for their bold words to give place to action, they fail to act. Discipline and initiative have been the secret of the resounding success the New Zealand forces serving abroad have won. Discipline has too often been lacking on the home front because the Government has been too vacillating, too weak to impose it. If the community has been insufficiently or unevenly disciplined, its initiative has been, and still is being, gravely undermined by the onward march of regimentation, administered by a bureaucracy which grows by leaps and bounds, and which is hopelessly unequal to its task. Some of the development, is the inevitable result of war necessities, but it began long before the war. Details of the way in which the citizen's rights are being hedged and circumscribed by regulations, official activities, and inspectorates are far too numerous to catalogue and too familiar to need emphasising. The system is based on one central theory which is as simple as it is vicious that departments and officials can shape the life of the citizen better than he can do it himself. Even if they could —a proposition gravely open to doubt —the process would very soon sap the moral fibre of the nation, producing a race of robots as descendants of those strong and self-reliant men and women who laid the foundations of the New Zealand we know to-day. These things comprise the other side of the record on which Mr. Fraser founded his appeal for support. The elector is recommended to take them seriously, into consideration. They are all important, for the Government to be chosen will have much to do with shaping the destinies of the country after the war. The issues, then, are government by the will of the people or the whim of a selfish and arrogant coterie; selfreliance and self-development, or obedience to the rules and regulations controlling a regimented society. The wise citizen will not hesitate over his choice.