GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE

Southland Times, Issue 24001, 16 December 1939, Page 4

GOVERNMENT AND THE PEOPLE

PROBLEMS TO BE FACED MR R. M. ALGIE’S ADDRESS AT AUCKLAND - i “The Government is being forced to rely upon a whole family of Radio Uncles’ in its determined and continuous efforts to induce the people to believe that things are not as bad as they seem.” With these words, Mr R.. M. Algie opened an address in the Auckland Town Hall on Thursday night Continuing, Mr Algie said: “Our ‘Uncle of the Friendly Road’ has now been partnered in a combined doubles on Sunday evenings by no less a protagonist than the Prime Minister himself; and, almost nightly throughout the week, we flit from ‘uncle’ to ‘uncle,’ the tune changing according to the voice, but the purpose being always the same—propaganda, and always more propaganda. Shakespeare might have been tempted to remark that perhaps ‘they do protest too much. “If the policy of the Government had been as successful as we were told it would be, then surely there would have been no need for all the broadcasts. People who are sure of themselves and who are satisfied that all is well, do not fear criticism; still less do they resent it; and when they get it, they have no need to descend to threats ana mere personalities. They respond naturally to the finer principles ot fair play, ana they extend to their opponents a to use the radio equal to that which they demand for themselves. This, .said Mr Algie, “the Labour Government has never done. No one would ever say that the use it has .made of the radio could ever be described as fan’ and impartial.” , The wrongs of which so many people were complaining, and the difficulties in which the Government now found itself, were not attributable in any real sense to war conditions, he said. They were simply and solely the cumulative result of three years of Government policy, and there was no escape from that. The average citizen was as loyal as any member of the Government and just as determined to piay nis part in the war effort of his country. But he was equally determined not to submit to any more and unnecessary instalments of socialization, and it was perfectly clear to him that four years of Government policy were a major factor in preventing him from giving that degree of national service which he would otherwise have been glad and able to give.

REACTION TO WAR

When the war broke out, however, the Government had to make some most important decisions. Among other things, it had to decide whether it would carry on with its attack on individual enterprise and free business or suspend those activities for a tune and concentrate entirely upon winning the war. What happened? Mr Savage himself had said over the air on a recent Sunday evening that his Government felt that it would have been untrue to its party supporters if it had slackened off in its policy of socialization. When it passed the Marketing Act, and the Reserve Bank Act, it had demonstrated, without any room for argument, that the war effort of New Zealand was by no means its only aim. At such a time it was right and proper that all sections of the community should be united in one great and determined co-operative effort, but cooperation implied mutual concessions. The Government expected co-operation but without any concessions on its part, and those who would like to give the co-operation found that if they did so they were expected to assent passively to the terms persisted in by the Government. It was a tragedy, and a most regrettable one, too, that at a time like the present, questions of internal politics could still loom so largely in the forefront of public discussion. The prosecution of this country’s part in the war, ana the making of every possible provision for our soldiers, were tasks that demanded wholehearted unity on the part of the people, and a measure of forbearance on the part of the Government. There was no reason on earth why, to help to win the war, the people of this country should have to submit, to the permanent socialization of their economic life.

COALITION OF PARTIES From a purely realistic and practical point of view, the end to aim at would seem to be the securing of a true coalition of political parties for the duration of the war, Mr Algie said. Such a very desirable co-operation could be brought about only if the Government itself was prepared to make certain concessions. If one side was to give up its right to criticize on party lines, the other would have to desist for the time being from introducing the very measures that would give rise to that party criticism. Since the burning political issue at present was the question of socialistic and bureaucratic domination, the Government would have to be prepared to give an assurance that no further and unnecessary steps in that direction would be taken in the meantime, and that such of the ill-effects of that policy as were capable of a measure of relief would receive immediate and effective attention. If the Government would make no concessions in this respect, then active co-operation would be impossible. But if active co-operation between political parties could not be secured, that would not justify active resistance. Regard for the sacrifices being made by the soldiers, and a determination to help in the war effort would still have to dominate thought and action. Failing an actual coalition of parties, there would still remain the right of reasoned approach to the Government. If those approaches were made repeatedly and were ignored, or were given no effective consideration, the only remedy left would be to place the facts fairly and in a temperate manner before the public, and to place full reliance upon the constitutional remedy available to all citizens at an election.

“Political power,” concluded Mr Algie, “rests in the end with the people themselves. They get the kind of Government most of them want. If their opinions change, they can get rid of it only by the use of the same means by which they got it. If wrongs of a substantial nature exist, it is the. duty of the Government to redress them if it can. If the wrongs are really serious, the good sense of the people will ultimately prevail, and the more serious they are, the sooner the people will see it. A dictatorial attitude on the part of the Government towards the reasonable and just complaints of the governed will have only one result; it may take time, but in the end a people will show a Government what it thinks of those who turn a deaf and unsympathetic ear to those who have right and justice on their side.”