The Dominion WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1940. NEW ZEALAND AND THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 190, 8 May 1940, Page 8

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, MAY 8, 1940. NEW ZEALAND AND THE WAR

• In the course of a vigorous sermon on the appropriate subject of “Christian Duty in this National Crisis,” the Rev. W. T. Armour of Knox Church, Christchurch, preaching at St. John s Presbyterian Church in Wellington on Sunday last, made an eloquent plea tor national unity and whole-hearted effort by the New Zealand Government and people in the grave struggle for existence in which thebn .is i Empire is engaged. Incidentally, he referred to the question ot national military service.. The voluntary system, he said, placed a multitude of people in a strange quandary: “It leaves them with the burden of a decision they should not have, and it leaves others to carry the burden of others as well as their own. . This question was raised at an election meeting addressed by the Prime Minister, Mr. Fraser, on behalf of the Labour candidate for the Auckland West seat on Monday. At his statement that the Laboui Party and the Government stood for the voluntary system which, up to the present time,” said Mr. Fraser, “has been a great success, a voice interrupted: “But it is not fair.” This interjection represents the attitude of many. It strikes at the fundamental weakness of the voluntary system, and undoubtedly has had its effect on recruiting, notwithstanding the Prime Minister’s attempt to present the position in the most favourable light. The best answer to Mr. Fraser s assertion are the recent urgent appeals by the military authorities to single young men to come forward. The very fact that such appeals have been found necessary is sufficient evidence that recruiting has become a serious problem. The obligations this country has entered into as its share of the Empire war'effort are among the most important questions for Parliament to consider when it assembles in June after having been in recess for a period of eight months. In the interval the general war situation has assumed an entirely different and more serious aspect from that which existed when Parliament adjourned in October last. The real nature of the struggle has become apparent, and with this grim revelation the need for the utmost energy and maximum effort of which the Allies are capable is sharply emphasized.. As these lines are written the British House of Commons is demanding an accounting of the Government’s conduct of the war, especially the operations in Norway, and it may be repeated, in passing, that this opportunity of questioning the Government is a privilege the British Parliament and people have been able to exercise since the war broke out. It is a privilege which has been denied to the New Zealand Parliament and people. Two questions of paramount importance which must be fully ventilated in Parliament are the positions of recruiting and the persistence of subversive activities in defiance of regulations gazetted for suppressing them. There is an uneasy feeling that on both those questions the Government has failed to realize the necessities of the case. On these and other matters relevant to the National war effort Parliament is entitled to an accounting. Whatever the Government spokesmen may say, it cannot be questioned that there is not in evidence the will and thorough-going energy in this country’s war effort the gravity of the danger so urgently demands.

The war effort in this country (said Sir James Elliott in an address at the Wellington Rotary Club yesterday) is too flattering to our self-complacency. More than a year after the war began we shall have one division in the’field. There are, alas, people in New Zealand whose eai's are dull to the call, and the scales have not yet fallen from their eyes. Some desire most of all more and more pay and less and less work, and a good time. Clearly a new spirit is needed. Sectional differences and personal self-seeking must be abandoned. Questions of party policy must give way to a national war policy which will unite and inspire all sections of the country to a maximum war effort.