OPPOSITION NOT SATISFIED

Southland Times, Issue 24152, 14 June 1940, Page 6

OPPOSITION NOT SATISFIED

POWERS THOUGHT TOO NARROW

NON-PARTY RULE IS WANTED (From Our Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON, June 13. The proposals submitted by the Government to the Opposition for representation on a war Cabinet as well as on a war Council have been rejected. The Opposition’s reply to the proposals which were considered today was delivered by the Leader (the Hon. Adam Hamilton) in the House of Representatives tonight.

“In the opinion of the Opposition this latest proposal of the Government is simply trifling with an important public question at the very moment of the Empire’s darkest hour, and the delays that have merely led to this ineffective offer appeal- to the Opposition to be inexcusable,” Mr Hamilton said, in announcing the decision reached by the Opposition after a caucus that occupied the greater part of the afternoon. After reviewing the earlier negotiations between the parties, Mr Hamilton said: “The complicated nature of this latest proposal with which the Government intends to proceed, in no way meets the situation. It fails to give the country the leadership it needs and I am certain that nothing less than an all-in quick-acting non-party Cabinet with full administrative powers will satisfy the people of New Zealand and ensure a full national effort.

“TRINITY OF CONTROL” “The proposal suggests first that two members of the Opposition Party may act on a war Cabinet with three representing the Government. The Opposition members would have no portfolio. and it is not intended that they would have the right to attend Cabinet meetings,” he continued. “The proposal is equally half-hearted in the powers with which it is suggested that this war Cabinet should be vested. It merely deals with any matters relating to the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force or his Majesty’s Navy _ and Air Force and home defence. This is but a very small part of what is represented by Nev/ Zealand’s war effort because the all-important questions of production, finance and man power are completely excluded from the functions of the war Cabinet. Its main purpose as a war Cabinet is defeated,” Mr Hamilton said. “No proposal could be better designed to clog, rather than to free, the action of our war organization. Here we have proposed to us an uninspiring, cumbersome trinity of control and advice. The Government envisages a war Cabinet, of five, an ordinary Cabinet of 12 or so and a war Council of 15 which is described as ‘necessarily consultative and advisory.’ “I am absolutely certain that such a cumbersome organization is unworkable and cannot satisfy the people of New Zealand in their desire for a truly non-party quick-acting war Cabinet with full powers. I repeat that it cannot materially help in New Zealand’s war effort which embraces primary production, factory production, war finance and the all-important question of organizing the national man power,” he added. “The Opposition is determined to, stand 100 per cent, behind New Zealand s war effort and the moment the Government is prepared to give effect to the obvious necessity for a non-party Cabxnet with full ministerial responsibilities and powers, we will be ready and willing to nominate our members. I believe—and my colleagues unanimously support me in that belief —that by exercising our normal functions as an Opposition with Parliament sitting we can render a greater measure of national service to New Zealand’s war effort than could be done under any of the proposals made by the Government so far.” APPEAL FOR LEADERSHIP Mr Hamilton said he referred to the action taken in Britain and said that nothing less than a national war Cabinet with full powers free of all party influences would be able to give this country the leadership it needed. Nothing less would satisfy the people of New Zealand and ensure a full national effort. “All will be sorry that the Government’s proposals have fallen so far short of what is obviously reasonable in the circumstances,” he said, “but they fail and fail lamentably. Everyone is prepared to make sacrifices today and the Opposition in no way seeks office for party gain. No sacrifice is too great for victory. The Opposition is still prepared to play its part and to give a hand to bring to justice the slacker or the profiteer wherever he is found but we must have equality of sacrifice among every section of the coxixmunity and the Government must lead in that equality of sacrifice. Then any loyal citizen will stand any test. We have the legislation. The Government calls it ‘all-in.’ If its spirit is to inspire we must have an all-in administration and all-in action and that action without temporizing or sparring for some petty partisan advantage. “There is no excuse today for peacetime speed, nor is it a time for indefiniteness. The Government has the right to lead. It must be prepared to leave talk of the past and deal with the urgent present. It must be able to prove its character in uniting the people on the basis of country first, a basis on which it must set the example.”