PROSECUTION OF WAR

Waikato Times, Volume 126, Issue 21036, 12 February 1940, Page 8

PROSECUTION OF WAR

NEW ZEALAND’S EFFORT STATEMENT BY MR SAVAGE DEFEAT OF SABOTEURS The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. M. J. Savage, in a broadcast talk last night, said: “The Government is not merely going to use—it is now using all the machinery of the law to defeat all would-be saboteurs, with what thoroughness you will soon see for yourselves.” Mr Savage said that democracy had no existence apart from the character and opinions of the people who lived under it. War and adversity put it to a test under which sham democracy was likely to collapse. New Zealanders had to ask themselves how their democracy would behave in its second hundred years. Mr Savage emphasised the supreme need for volunteer soldiers and his confidence that they would press forward in a steady stream, and continued that sacrifice would extend to all forms of civil life, the work, leisure and recreation of the people, to the luxuries and even perhaps some of the necessities of everyone. Democracy had collapsed in some countries because people lost faith in it, because there was weakness and slackness in public affairs. He personally had no love for coercion, but still less for anarchy. Responsibility of Individuals No self-respecting Government could tolerate tricky evasion of the law, as for example *by the workman who deliberately went slow, by anyone who held up production, or by the trader who faked his invoices to escape price-restriction, or by the man who declared, “War is a fool’s business and I wash my hands of it.” Such people were not faithful to themselves, and democracy throve only in an atmosphere of responsibility.

Mr Savage said that once the people’s authority had been undermined by a disaffected few, the stage was set for the appearance of a dictator, who was a product of society, and not of any particular people or race.

The Government of New Zealand was carrying out what it knew to be the people's will and would not tolerate sabotage. The Prime Minister concluded by urging his hearers individually to uphold democracy by challenging assertions against it with timely and vigorous argument. One man, he said, might by this means change the whole tone of an office or workshop. He was confident that the country’s morale would be upheld against ideological freaks, idlers, ne'er-do-wells and others who sought to undermine it.