OUTSPOKEN COMMENT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24890, 14 April 1942, Page 6

OUTSPOKEN COMMENT

NEW ZEALAND’S WAR EFFORT WHAT BRITAIN HAS DONE During the discussion of a circular letter on New Zealand’s war effort forwarded by the Pukekohe Borough Council to the monthly meeting of the Tuapeka County Council on Friday afternoon some interesting and out.spoken comments'were made by councillors. . Cr M. T. Murney said he felt that the proposals for a Supreme War Council and a civilian army as contained in the letter would meet with universal approval. Cr R. S. Thompson said that New Zealand should follow Great Britain’s example and form a truly National Government representative of all sections of the community. Britain’s ‘ all in ” war effort since the formation of a National Government had been little short of a miracle. Under Mr Chamberlain, after nine months of war, Britain had set aside only an hour and a-half out of every eight hours for the war production. After Dunkirk “ business as usual ” became in most cases “no business at all.” Everything was concentrated on war production. The Maximum Effort

War production was later advanced to two-thirds of the country’s total production, which, Cr Thompson said, was considered the maximum effort that a country could sustain indefinitely. The production of nonessential goods had been drastically cut. For instance, there were formerly 750 cotton-weaving plants, and now there were only 150. Of 100 hosiery mills, all but four had stopped producing their original goods. All watchmaking work was centralised into one plant. The smaller businesses were forced out of consumer production, and in no case did ihe Government pay compensation or hold out any promise of restitution after the war. To-day the richest man in Britain could not buy a new car, a new tyre, or a new stainless knife. In Britain to-day rationing was perhaps the most popular of all the war economic measures, as it ensured equality of sacrifice and did not allow the rich a larger share of the available goods. Britain now spends 80 per cent, of her national income on war service, Cr Thompson said. “ One-third of this expenditure is met by taxation, the other two-thirds by loans largely subscribed by the workers of Britain. Taxation in Britain has risen steeply to 971 per cent, of the highest incomes. Taxation experts state that there are only 25 persons in Britain enjoying a net income of more than £SOOO spending money after the income tax collector has been satisfied. No matter how high the income, it is actually impossible in Great Britain to , ret s m more than £BOOO a year. In the determination to enforce equality of sacrifice the British people are now demanding 100 per cent, rationing. The Dominion Lagging In New Zealand, during the last war, many large fortunes were made out of war profits, Cr Thompson continued, and despite an assurance from the Government that no person would be allowed to-day to make a war profit, it was well known that many people in New Zealand were at this moment doing extremely well out of the world war. Obviously the wonderful results achieved in Great Britain could only have been achieved by a National Government wholly backed by a united people, and the way to ensure equality of sacrifice and the backing of our fighting forces was to follow Britain’s example and form in this country a truly National Government representative of every section of the community Cr J. D. Revie said that the whole difficulty to-day was that there were people in New Zealand who were utterly devoid of any love for the Empire, and were willing to sit back and accept all the sacrifices being made by the flower of our young manhipod without returning the least service. The time had come for any one with a deep love of the Empire to rise to instant action. “At the recent Easter Conference,” said C r B ev^e > " ments were made by people who had very little love of the Empire, and until these people are put where they belong, we will get nowhere.” On the motion of Cr Thompson, it was decided to reply to the Pukekohe Borough Council stating that the Tuapeka County Council, while agreeable to the motion, considered that in the interests of New Zealand's national war effort the election of a non-party National Government was necessary for the furtherance of the war effort.