Mr Savage on Sabotage

Southland Times, Issue 24003, 19 December 1939, Page 4

Mr Savage on Sabotage

qnHE Prime Minister continues I to make vague and sweeping charges against persons whom he brands as “wreckers” of the Dominion’s war effort. He now divides the “wreckers” into two classes —the Leftists, who say the Government is not going fast enough, and the Rightists, who say the Government is going too fast; he depicts both groups as being unscrupulous in their methods; and he lumps them both together for emphatic condemnation. It will not be denied that there are persons and organized bodies in New Zealand carrying on what may properly be described as subversive activities. In his broadcast address on Sunday Mr Savage said he was in some doubt whether the Leftist class or the Rightist class was the greater menace, but those who have followed the pamphleteering activities of the Communist Party or who have read the resolution passed by the West Coast Trades and Labour Council will be unlikely to share his indecision. Although the Prime Minister ap-

pears to know a great deal more about Rightist “wreckers” than the average citizen, it will be surprising if he can produce any evidence of subversive activity that will compare with the evidence which has been so freely volunteered from the Left. The Government has full power to deal with such offenders and should not hesitate to use it: a mere repetition of threats will not silence them. But the Prime Minister’s speeches will succeed only in arousing greater antagonism unless he is in future more explicit in his charges against the Government’s opponents. It is absurd to suggest that persons are guilty of sabotaging the Dominion’s war effort merely because they believe that the Government is not going fast enough, or that it is going too fast —because, in other words, they hold different political opinions from Mr Savage. The Government is entitled to expect, and is in fact receiving, the goodwill and co-operation of all responsible citizens in furthering the war effort, however much they may be concerned about the foundations on which it rests; but the Government cannot expect complete freedom from criticism or complete unanimity of political opinion. Those are the prerogatives of the dictatorships, and history is proving that they are very doubtful advaritages indeed. The Opposition has a useful function to perform in war time, in New Zealand as well as in Britain, where the Labour Party is by no means silent or satisfied. That there has been a greater amount of, and more bitter, political controversy in New Zealand than in Britain is attributable to two factors, for both of which the Government must bear the responsibility—the unhappy financial and economic condition of the Dominion at the outbreak of war, and the Government’s failure, after war had been declared, to seek any real basis of co-operation with the National Party or to suspend its socialist plans.