No Conscription In Peacetime Without Referendum Of The People, Says Labour Council

Wanganui Chronicle, 17 February 1949, Page 6

No Conscription In Peacetime Without Referendum Of The People, Says Labour Council

WELLINGTON, Last Night (PA).—Before any policy of peacetime conscription was put into effect it should be submitted to a referendum of the people, declared the National Council of the New Zealand Federation of Labour today.

The council, on Tuesday, was told by the Prime Minister (Mr. Fraser) that he hoped voluntary enlistment would be adequate to meet the Dominion’s military requirements, but that if that did not do the job conscription might be necessary. No one would deny that this country was worth defending, and if it was worth defending then it was reasonable to take measures to put defence into effect, Mr Fraser said. In his opinion the policy of the Labour movement on the issues involved should be fully discussed by

the movement and he hoped that before any decisions were made the matter would be referred to industrial and political Labour conferences to be held in Wellington in May. The National Council, after a long discussion, decided that before any policy of peacetime conscription was put into effect, the matter should be referred by the Federation of Labour to affiliated unions and that the federation’s policy be determined by the annual conference of delegates in May. The council, at the same time, declared there should be a referendum of the people if peacetime conscription was contemplated.