HELPING OR HINDERING NATIONAL SECURITY.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21136, 8 September 1938, Page 6

HELPING OR HINDERING NATIONAL SECURITY.

If coming events cast their shadows before, the action of the Prime Minister in enforcing urgency on the House of Representatives yesterday in consideration of the Government’s Social Security legislation, would seem to suggest the speeding up of the work of Parliament and an early election. Obviously the Government feels that the sooner it secures the verdict of the people the better will be its chances of success. It is nevertheless somewhat inconsistent on the part of the Government to permit the House of Representatives to waste long hours on painful reiteration in almost futile discussion and then with a dramatic stroke decide, at the point of the bayonet, to rush through Parliament the committee stage of one of the most important and far-reaching legislative measures that has been before the country for many years. So much is involved in the Government’s plan to give social security to the people that it is obviously desirable and indeed imperative in face of the unfavourable and even menacing international situation, that the foundations should be well and truly laid. It is not difficult, particularly in an election year, for the Government and Parliament to make concessions to the people in anticipation of securing popular approval in a tangible form through the ballot box. It is desirable, nevertheless that no comprehensive plan to provide social security should be given legislative authority without making absolutely certain that the financial foundation is so securely laid that no temporary economic set back the country might experience, would undermine the stability of the whole edifice. The country should therefore ask itself if the implementation of the Government’s almost aggressively Socialistic policy has helped or hindered the promotion of national security, which, of course, involves the interests of the whole community.