“MOST MISCHIEVOUS STATEMENT”

Timaru Herald, Volume CLIII, Issue 22492, 29 January 1943, Page 4

“MOST MISCHIEVOUS STATEMENT”

Return Of New Zealand Division Trenchant Criticism Of Hon. D. G. Sullivan (N.Z.P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Jan. 28. “A most mischievous statement has been made by a Minister of the Crown, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan, in the course of the by-election,” said Mr F. W. Doidge (National, Tauranga). in speaking at the Civic Theatre this evening. “The Minister has disclosed that it is the desire and intention of the Government to return our Division from the Middle East as soon as it is possible to do so. Professing to deprecate any attempt to win political support by advocating the return of the men, the Minister had straightway proceeded to dangle before the electors the hope of the Division’s early return.

“That had not been Mr Sullivan’s only indiscretion,” Mr Doidge continued. “He had further declared that the proposal contained in the cable message from the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, to Mr Churchill had been approved by Members of Parliament without a dissentient voice. That was flatly untrue, and Mr Sullivan's mind,” said Mr Doidge, “must have been a complete blackout as to what had actually happened. The moment Mr Fraser had completed reading the interchange of cables, Mr S. G. Holland, Leader of the Opposition, had hotly protested that Mr Fraser should never have dreamed of submitting such a proposal to Mr Churchill before Parliament had been consulted. “Half the Story” "In saying that Parliament in secret session had been fully informed of the interchange, Mr Sullivan had told less than half the story. The electors had a right to know what Mr Fraser asked and what Mr Churchill replied. They all wanted the boys back home,” said Mr Doidge, "but would the men themselves welcome the opportunity of returning at this moment, when, after fighting for three years against odds, they now had Rommel on the run?” he asked, “and would they be content to leave 9000 New Zealand prisoners of war behind the barbed wire of the enemy prison camps?” Mr Doidge said it was also time that the Government gave the people a better understanding of the nature of New Zealand’s war effort. Few realised that the number of men sent overseas to fight fell short by tens of thousands of the number sent in the last war when the population was a bare 1,000,000. It was true that heavy calls had been made for home defence. Now that the risk of a Japanese invasion had receded a revision of home defence plans was desirable. But overseas obligations had not lessened, and until Mr Fraser took the people into his confidence fully there would be apprehension about his intentions.