EMPLOYMENT BILL

Timaru Herald, Volume CLVIII, Issue 23347, 2 November 1945, Page 2

EMPLOYMENT BILL

Debate In Upper House Question Of Permanent Army

(N.Z.P.A.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 31. An assurance that the Government did not intend to use compulsion in placing any person in employment under the provisions of the Employment Bill was given in the Legislative Council to-day by the leader, the Hon. A. McLagan. The Government did not seek that power and the Bill did not give it. The only way the Government would be able to indicate its displeasure at a person’s refusal to undertake work considered acceptable would be to class that person as voluntarily unemployed and therefore not entitled to unemployment benefits. The Hon. W. Perry sought an early statement of Government policy regarding the provision, nature and extent of the armed forces required for the defence of New Zealand against any external aggression from now on. Such a statement was necessary, he said, because there are many hundreds, if not thousands, of men in the Service.'. who would be prepared to remain in the Services if they were told what I he, conditions of pay and opportunities for advancement would be. If those men were not soon told they would go back to their civilian occupations and would be lost to the Services. II ■ hoped that when the decision was made the terms of service would be much more attractive than before the Mr McLagan said it was the kind of manpower they had hoped would not be necessary on a large scale, but if large, a scale that would gradually decline and finally die away altogether, it had to be realised that New Zealand had certain obligations to the United ‘ Nations and would have to be prepared to provide part of the police force that would be necessary. An armed force would have to be maintained for some years to come. It would

offer a career for New Zealanders who were interested, and the Government would make a statement on the size of that force in due course. In the meantime the Dominion was committed to sending a force to Japan, and that would have to be maintained for some time. It was to be hoped that il. would be unnecessary to maintain fnrons in other narts of the world