THE NEW ORDER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25302, 12 August 1943, Page 7

THE NEW ORDER

Sir. —With reference to the new social order, X think it is quite apparent to all thinking people that something must be done We are faced with the threat of national bankruptcy and, perhaps, general chaos unless man can master the gigantic money machine. We are all aware that the war will end some day, and in favour of the United Nations, but as soon as it is over then another war will begin, the economic war. Meetings will be held, mass demonstrations will be organised, and ceaseless and intensive educational work will be carried on through the medium of the written and spoken word, but all efforts in that direction will be useless unless followed up by determined and sustained action politically by the workers. When the war is ended, New Zealand and all other parts of the British Commonwealth will be faced with the greatest economic problems ever known. Repatriation, employment, production, price control, housing, living standard, markets, transport, child welfare, and so on will have to be solved. New Zealand has the advantage of a Labour Government to assist in solving its post-war problems, In this war, unlike the last, the Labour Government has maintained the living standards of the people By regulation it has safeguarded wages and conditions, rationing, marketing, and numerous other controls, and this has been done, not in the interest of one section of the population, but with the view to preserving the welfare of the whole of the New Zealand people. The only Parliament which can build the structure of a better social order is one that represents the whole of the people of New Zealand. By our vote, by our work and organisations we must see that our Constitution is arranged so that Parliament may be effectively equipped to serve and save the people of our beautiful Dominion.

The war has upset things in every direction, and on most things we seem to have acquired a war sense. And it is not to be wondered at. Everywhere we go we meet war and all it stands for, in a hundred different shapes. In our theatres, parks, streets, papers, and the ever-present radio it is everywhere apparent. Life is not real under the circumstances; one has no right to expect it to be. Like all other working people, I do not know what the future has In store for a troubled and war-wracked world, but I do sincerely hope that it brings us nearer, much nearer, the brotherhood of man than we are at present.—l am. etc., Ernest Clayton. [Abridged.—Ed., O.D.T.]