NEW ZEALAND’S PART IN WAR

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 191, 9 May 1940, Page 7

NEW ZEALAND’S PART IN WAR

Recruiting Described As Haphazard BOARD OF PROPAGANDA REQUESTED The whole recruiting business was being carried out on haphazard lines and there was urgent need for adequate propaganda in connexion with NewZealand's war effort, said a speaker at. a recent meeting of the Wellington Recruiting Committee. After discussing the question the meeting decided to request (lie National Recruiting Council to urge the Government to set up a Board of Propaganda.

A member of the committee, who was engaged in propaganda work during the last war, said there was almost a complete absence of war propaganda in New Zealand. Propaganda and advertising were not the same thing, though advertising, of course, played an important part in propaganda. The last war had proved that propaganda was the "fourth arm of defence." Adequate Effort Needed. The speaker stressed the need for the application of psychology to New Zealand's appeal for volunteers. No attempt appeared to have been made to analyse the reasons which induced men to enlist. The whole recruiting business, he submitted, was being carried out on Imphazard lines, and no attempt was being made to create the atmosphere necessary for an adequate wartime effort in which every man, woman, and child in the Dominion woidd be fully imbued with the seriousness of the struggle. Most people still assumed that tiie war zones were in Norway or Prance; actually the war was right here, and every man, woman, and child should be made to realize this.

Other speakers endorsed the need for an adequate propaganda campaign. One member of the committee said that the question was not one for advertising agents but for trained journalists.

Another speaker commented on what he described as the complacency of the Government. It was nonsense to assert that the voluntary system was a complete success. At no time in the last war was it necessary for the Prime Minister to go from one end of the Dominion to the other on a recruiting tour.

They were told that the third echelon was practically up to full strength, but the problem facing the Dominion was to ensure reinforcements and reserves of at least 1000 a month. After further discussion it was decided to request the National Recruiting Council to urge the Government to set up a Board of Propaganda.