NEW ZEALAND’S WAR EFFORT

Southland Times, Issue 24460, 13 June 1941, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND’S WAR EFFORT

POLITICAL UNITY URGED

MR HOLLAND’S APPEAL

(Special) WELLINGTON, June 12.

“If the Government will not form a national government let'it say there will be an election and take awaj" the veil of secrecy,” the Leader of the Opposition (Mi- S. G. Holland) declared in the House of Representatives tonight. Mr Holland disclosed that he had declined to join the War Cabinet because he would have been “leg-ironed” and tied.

Mr Holland said that with the Empire facing its greatest crisis this was not the time for a ding-dong debate on the Imprest Bill nor for squabbling. Mr J. Thorn (Lab., Thames): Why call us Nazis?

Mr Holland denied that he had ever called anybody a Nazi, and continued that the natural impulse at the present, time was to get together, to drop party bickering and party organization and to find some method of unifying the political forces of the country so as to give the people that inspired leadership which they were asking and to which they were entitled. FULL SUPPORT OFFERED Mr P. Carr (Lab., Auckland West): Stop your attacks on the workers, then. “I want to say that this is the time, long past due, for the formation of a truly national Government,” Mr. Holland said. “The Opposition will give to the Government of New Zealand and to the Empire its full support in any course the Government feels it should take to further New Zealand s contribution to the Empire’s war effort.” Mr Holland said he was 'the most recent person to convey a proposal for the formation of a national government. It was made in a simple, straightforward manner, and Mr Fraser thanked him sincerely. He did not propose to say what else was said. Mr B. Roberts (Lab., Wairarapa): Didn’t he ask you to go into the War Cabinet? Mr Holland: Not on that occasion. He had previously. Mr Roberts: Why didn t you? “I will tell you quite frankly, replied Mr Holland. He repeated a conversation with the Prime Minister immediately after his appointment as Leader of the Opposition and his assurance of the Opposition’s assistance in the war effort. Mr Fraser asked him to go into the War Cabinet. The party considered it and he then told Mi Fraser he was unable to accept the offer because he believed the desire was to get' him into the War Cabinet so that he would be leg-ironed and tied so that he could not do the work as leader. He offered to do any work without payment, ministerial rank or emolument, and he was prepared to take his first assignment. “I have been engaged in preparations for the elections because the Government insists that we shall continue to function as the Opposition. If the Government wishes us to cease functioning as the Opposition and says it believes in unity and will practice it and form a national government, we will drop national politics.

READY TO DROP PARTY POLITICS “There cannot be a more forward proposition than that,” he said. “All along we have been prepared to drop party politics if the Government will do the same, and it ill becomes the Government for criticizing others for what it is doing. We continue to function as a party because the Government refuses to give up party politics.” Mr Holland later said he was otten asked if the election was to be held. “If the Government has no intention of forming a national government, let us clear it up,” he said. The people are entitled to the information. I see no reason for a postponement of the election. Mr Fraser told me clearly there would be no postponement of the General Election unless a national government is formed first. If we aie going to form a national government let us form it now.” “If there is an unmistakable call tor a National Government then a national Government must come, said Mr H. Atmore (Ind., Nelson). “So far I have seen no signs of any such universal call. I have seen organizations that as a rule represent distinct sections of people passing resolutions in favour of a National Government. The people must be the Caesars of the occasion. We want to be sure that it is the voice of the people and not the voice of a section masquerading as the voice of the people.’

PARTIES SHOULD SET EXAMPLE “PARLIAMENT IS FAILING” (Special) WELLINGTON, June 12. The responsibility which would be thrown on the Prime Minister in deciding not to form a national Government was described as fearful by the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes (Nat., Hurunui) in the Imprest Supply debate in the House of Representatives today. Mr Forbes made a plea that political parties should set an example to the people by closing their ranks and working unitedly for the war effort. If things which were purely local were indulged in the people would say that Parliament and parliamentarians had not risen to the occasion. Mr Forbes said the parties had their differences, but if they could not rise sufficiently in time of crisis they were poor men indeed. As a member of Parliament in the last war he would say without hesitation that New Zealand would not have come through the war as it had and the acceptance without complaint, of sacrifices would not have been made by the people if unity had not been shown at the top by the formation of a national Government. Parliament was failing because it had not closed its ranks. When it was asking the people to make sacrifices to get together and to settle their differences. what could the people think of the sincerity of those in Parliament. BRITISH EXAMPLE The amount of money being spent on pleasure and other enjoyments had been mentioned in the appeal for National Savings, yet what example was Parliament showing, said Mr Forbes. In great Britain party differences must have been as great as they were in New Zealand, yet they had been overcome and all the parties were working wholeheartedly together. If the parties said they could not bury their differences in the political game, did not that show to the people that they were not prepared to face up to political sacrifices. “Speaking with my knowledge and experience of the responsibilities of the Government, I would say that I would not accept responsibility of carrying this country through its sternest days with the representatives of one section of the people—the largest section admittedly,” Mr Forbes said. “That responsibility would be much too great for me to take. Unless we have the whole of the resources, goodwill and energies of the people combined and some example to inspire them, it is going to be a very, very trying and

anxious time. No man who is Prime Minister should have that fearful responsibility lying at his door. He is the man to say whether we at the top should set an example of the unity and co-operation necessary if we are going to put forward cur best effort. FEARFUL RESPONSIBILITY Mr Forbes emphasized that he was not criticizing the . Government, as through the war period he had said nothing that would lower the prestige of the Government. Mr J. Thorn (Lab., Thames): Your colleagues have. Mr Forbes asked how they could go on the platform and ask for wholehearted co-operation for the war effort when they were not prepared themselves to co-operate. It would have a false ring and would be a case of saying: “Don’t do as we do, but do as we say.” It was a fearful responsibility for a Government to carry on without forming a united Parliament. To get a united people they should sink their differences. For parties to do that required a good deal of courage and determination and the making of sacrifices. If they failed and that prevented the country showing its full strength and caused a weakening of morale who would be to blame. Morale was being tested today. He knew that objections to a national Government were made by men in the Labour Party outside the House, but it was the Government’s responsibility to say whether or not a national Government should be formed.

NO CONCERN WITH INTERNAL AFFAIRS NATIONAL GOVERNMENT’S FUNCTIONS (Special) WELLINGTON, June 12. “If any party goes into a war Government its function will be not to deal with internal administration, but to bring about an improvement of the war effort and to keep up the morale of the people,” the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes (Nat., Hurunui) said in the House of Representatives today after urging the formation of a National Government.

Mr Forbes declared that it would not be right or proper for the Opposition to go into a war or National Government to interfere with what had been done by legislation. The Minister of Agriculture, the Hon. J. G. Barclay, raised the question of the 40-hour week.

“That is a matter for the War Cabinet itself.” replied Mr Forbes. “If longer hours are necessary it would not be worthy of the War Cabinet to see that longer hours are not done.” Mr Barclay: They have that machinery now. Mr Forbes: I did not raise the question of the 40-hour week. .1 say it must stay put. Where the workers can work without detriment to the war effort, it should remain. That is the policy of the Government. Mr Barclay: What about ihe Chambers of Commerce and Farmers’ Union?

“I don’t care about the Chambers of Commerce,” Mr Forbes replied. “When I was in office the chambers criticized me more bitterly than the present Government. They are useful in their way, but they are not the Government of the country. The 40-hour week is the Government’s settled policy and a National Government is not called for the purpose of upsetting what has been done.

Mr J. Thorn (Lab., Thames): Do your own colleagues accept that? “My own colleagues would enter the War Cabinet in that spirit,” Mr Forbes said. “If not they would be unworthy of being in it.” “Is that clear enough?” asked Mr S. G. Holland (Leader of the Opposition). Mr Thorn replied that the Opposition members were not all “honest Georges.” Mr Forbes: They are all honest men. TARANAKI RESOLUTION (P.A.) HAWERA, June 12. A meeting of 400 residents representative of the farming and business communities, returned soldiers and Maoris this afternoon unanimously passed a resolution calling upon the Prime Minister and his colleagues “to secure the full unity of all sections of the community by forming a non-party Cabinet, not necessarily confined to members of Parliament, along the lines adopted by Mr Winston Churchill.” The meeting, which was non-political, was addressed by four representative speakers, whose theme was that the course suggested was the only means of obtaining a unified war effort in the Dominion. The resolution will be forwarded to the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Leader of the Democratic Labour Party and the member for the district.