CONDEMNATION EXPRESSED

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23966, 5 June 1943, Page 4

CONDEMNATION EXPRESSED

ITEM IN MERCANTILE JOURNAL ALLEGED IMPROVIDENCE OF SOLDIERS From Our Parliamentary Reporter WELLINGTON, June 4. A statement attributed to hnn m a, article in the “Mercantile Gazette was repudiated by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr S. G. HoHand) in the House of Representatives to d y whpn both he and the prime Ser (the%t. Hon. P. Fraser) vigorously'condemned this article. The subject was raised by Mr F. L. Frost (Government, New Plymouth) who asked the Prime Minister whether he had seen an article in which appeared the following'. “The shortage of houses was not due to the breakdown of private enterprise, but to the improvidence of soldiers who married in haste. When the present war ends and servicemen r - turn the house shortage is certain to be acute, because hundreds of soldiers married in haste before leaving for the front and without making any provision whatever for their future home life To further pander to this improvidence, the Government intends to build as soon as possible 16,000 cottages if it can. The Leader of the Opposition, at a meeting in Waikato, suggested that furniture should be provided, babies being accepted as payment.” , _ . Mr Frost asked whether the Prime Minister would take an early opportunity to refute the slur on the fighting men contained in the quotations. Mr Fraser said that the views in the article were not only alien but abhorrent to the sentiment of a country which felt that it could not do enough for the members of the forces. Men were quite right in marrying before they went away, and it was the country’s duty to make provision for them, and it was the least their country owed them. He described the article as stupid, cavilling slander. Mr Holland said that he joined with the Prime Minister in expressing disgust and contempt for 'the writer of the article. They all wanted to do what they could for returned soliders. The article was a sneering attack on men who were fighting for them and also for the writer of the article. He had never dreamt of saying anything like the statement attributed to him in the article.