The Prime Minister’s Illness

Southland Times, Issue 23888, 5 August 1939, Page 6

The Prime Minister’s Illness

GENERAL relief will be felt throughout New Zealand now that it is known the Prime Minister has survived a serious operation, and although his condition must cause anxiety during the next few days there is reason to hope that he is on his way towards a complete recovery. That this hope will prove to have been fully justified will certainly be the prevailing sentiment among the people of the Dominion. We believe that we can say this without fear of misunderstanding. New Zealanders take their politics in much the way that they take their football: they play to win, but they know how to fraternize off the field. Like every other man who enters political life, Mr Savage has had to face opposition, sometimes more vigorous than fair, but almost always based on convictions which are held as sincerely as his own. He has also won a very large personal following and the loyalty ana friendship of many thousands of persons in widely different walks of life. Supporters and opponents must have found themselves on common ground earlier in the week when it became known that he had insisted on presenting the Budget against medical advice. A sense of duty strong enough to over-ride physical warnings sometimes leads to imprudent demands on a waning energy, but even those who regret the self-imposed strain will admire the spirit which made it possible. At a time like the present Mr Savage appears before the public, not as the leader of the Government or of a political party, but as an individual who has given too much of his strength to a work in which he profoundly believes. It is no hasty or shallow feeling that actuates the large number of New Zealanders who hope to see him restored to an abundant health.