THE DEPRESSION PERIOD

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25814, 9 April 1945, Page 6

THE DEPRESSION PERIOD

Sir.—ln his letter Lest We Forget ”

shows a marked ignorance of world affairs during the depression period. He evidently does not know that during the period he writes about the world was in the middle of an economic depression unparalleled in our history up to date. He forgets that New Zealand was only one of the many countries that were affected bv this major catastrophe. Therefore no Government in New Zealand could have remedied the situation here. It only takes a little intelligent thinking to see this obvious fact. The fact that the Coalition Government happened to be in power does not make it in any way responsible for the inevitable. When the Labour Parly came into power things were gradually mending, yet the Labour Party took the credit for something that was world-wide. Next time " Lest We Forget ” tries to ridicule “ Matilda ” or other correspondents he should sit bank and uo some intelligent thinking first.—l iim, etc., April 7. Dija’s Son.

Sir, —While no one denies that a terrible hash was made of tilings during the depression, I would point out, by using the old tag about the pot calling the kettle black, that certain other people made quite a faux pas during the last war. If the depression is continually to be dragged up, in spite of the fact that certain admissions and solemn promises of future policy were made by the Leader of the Opposition before the last election —and I don’t propose to regard Mr Holland as a deliberate prevaricator and a truthless word-breaker—the apt retort would seem to be a deSsertation of prisons, service dodging, broad arrows, safe skins and so on. I presume retaliation is a fair thing, or does " Lest We Forget ” prefer one-way traffic? As to the insurance companies, that was not confined to the Nationalists, Feople with memories will remember some years ago that the Labour organ published articles regarding the fact that during the depression many workers surrendered their insuance policies, being unable to. keep up the payments, and thereby lost heavily. Also the Easter conference of the Labour Party demanded (after Labour came to power) that action should be taken by the Government to ensure that surrender values of insurance policies should be commensurate with the time during which those had been paid. Some time

later, when a Government loan was being raised and it was not being too quickly filled the insurance companies came to light with a few millions for the loan. This happened several years ago, but strangely enough nothing more has been heard of legislation regarding the surrender value of insurance policies, or if anything has been done I have never noticed any reference to it. Perhaps ” Lest We Forget ” can correct me with facts that have eluded me so far, and I would be glad to hear of them. But the first part of this letter cannot be corrected, and so the retort courteous, as I have pointed out, still holds good.—l am, etc. Observer. April 7.