IS THIS DEMOCRACY OF OURS HEALTHY?

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 284, 29 August 1942, Page 8

IS THIS DEMOCRACY OF OURS HEALTHY?

Parliament, People & Vital Policy Information AN ORDINARY MAN’S VIEW OF THE WAR (By OissEavEE.) Last week members of Parliament hurried to Wellington, called there by the Prime Minister to hear a review of the war situation before lie left lor Washington and to clear up »““or legislative business. The House of Representatives was in session from Tuesiday evening till a few minutes before I a.iq. on the Friday. Its actual sitting time was 19J hours. Of this period II hours were devoted to a secret session. When the jaded members ultimately emerged from* behind locked doors the following report—it may be worth repeating—was issued by the direction of the Speaker:— “The Prime Minister reviewed the situation in the several theatres of the war and discussed the question of the' best utilization of manpower in. the Dominion.” That, my good New Zealand electors, taxipayers, wives and mothers, of thousands of soldiers,.sailors, airmen, men still to* be drafted into the forces, workers in industry, ■ farmers—the whole lot of you who are vitally concerned in what your legislators do in Wellington; that is what they told you after a secret session in which decisions were endorsed affecting all of you in some way or other. Yesterday Mr. Coates lifted a. corner of the veil of mystery surrounding what decisions were reached. He said enough to let you know that in secret the House had before it War Cabinet decisions vital to the immediate future of thousands of our men already in uniform, and tens of thousands more forming the potential manpower pool. And yet after those 11 momentous hours*, you were fobbed off with four or five lines which told you absolutely nothing. You ought to be grateful to Mr. Coates for giving you at least an inkling of what has to be done. Now of a report from the House should set you-thinking. You might, for instance, wonder why you, a fragment of the public who are paying for this war in money, tears, anxiety and hard work, can’t be taken into the Administration’s confidence more fully. You may’ ask whether Parliament in New Zealand’is functioning with that health and vigour you are entitled to expect of it, taking your ideas from the healthy Parliamentary system of Great Britain. If you look back on the recent wartime history of your House of Representatives you will find it hard to recall a full-dress" debate in open session which had thoroughly overhauled and re-energized the war effort. Part of the trouble is that the Opposition is weak numerically and in debating calibre. And with the formation of the War Administration all formal ’Opposition ' has virtually ceased because de leading Oppositionists have been given Ministerial jobs to do and this inevitably silences their critical judgment at a time when* sound criticism was never more needed. What this country needs now is a thundering good row about some aspect of the war effort like the periodic rows they have in the House of Commons and in Canada and Australia—to clear the oppressive atmosaihere of frustration. ■ . Another reason for your hazy-headi-ness about what is being decided for* you is that down there at Parliament Buildings some of your Ministers seem timorous about taking the responsibility of issuing information which would give the enemy ■precious little comfort but would make you ai.d thousands more feel you mattered. You’ll get some sort of news from somewhere, mainly by rumour and garbled at that Why not a more liberal policy with vital news? —withholding only what the enemy could act upon to the detriment of our national security or military intentions. Censorship may prove a dangerous weapon if it seeks to keep the public in ignorance of matters which find circulation through underground channels. The country might not like the Implications in all that Mr. Coates said yesterday, but whereas on the day before that it was completely in the dark as to the Dominion’s war plans, it at least now knows something of what it ought to have been told immediately its Parliamentarians came out of secret session.