THREAT TO NEW ZEALAND

Dominion, Volume 36, Issue 18, 16 October 1942, Page 4

THREAT TO NEW ZEALAND

Maximum War Effort Required Of All CRITICAL SITUATION The enemy threat to New Zealand and the responsibility that rested on all citizens to do all in their power to achieve a maximum war effort by uniting the people in a common cause were emphasized by Mr. Coates, Minister of Armed Forces and War Co-ordination, during the no-confidence debate. No effort or sacrifice, he said, was too great to meet the determined enemy 'that threatened this country.

“The war situation at this very moment is as critical as it can be,” said Mr, Coates. “Our allies in the Pacific are engaged in a terrific struggle to hold the ground they have won. It is not a raid on the part of the enemy, but a determined effort to drive them out. This war is very close to our country, very close to Australia. This struggle may mean the safety and preservation of our people—that is not an exaggeration. These are stern facts. We are up against it as never before.” Mr. Doidge (Opposition, Tauranga): Were we not up against stern facts after Dunkirk? A Government member: Be quiet. “I am telling members the facts,” said Mr. Coates. “If this goes against us we are for it. We are just a few days away by sea, less than a day by air to where these titanic struggles are taking place. What would happen to the people of our country if the worst happened? No effort, or sacrifice we can make can be too great in order to meet the determined enemy that threatens us at this moment.” Tributes to Services. After paying a tribute to the members of the armed forces overseas and members of the Mercantile Marine. Mr. Coates said the question was how private citizens could organize the resources of their country so as to make the best use of the material left behind. “We cannot afford to make a mistake, for that means an advantage to the enemy,” he said. “No sacrifice is too great that will enable us to present a. solid front. The present situation is by no means bright, but if ever we go into the fight determined to see it through we will win. “There is always room for differences of opinion,” continued Mr. Coates. “All are entitled to their individual views, but when that is said there is still an overriding demand and responsibility that rests on our shoulders, irrespective of what class dr constituency we may represent. The war is the first and only consideration. • Domestic politics have by declaration of the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition been relegated to the background while this war threatens us and drives down our way. My own opinion is that this House has one course and one only to steer, and that is to take a line that will bring our people together in a common cause against the threat they have to contend with. New Zealand can still play a vital part in the decision being fought out at-the moment.” Mr. Coates said the issue before the House in the no-confidence motion was whether the law should have been carried out and a group of miners sent to prison. Having in mind what ne had said about the enemy threat and the danger to our safety, he asked members to contradict it and to ask themselves what they would have done m similar circumstances. Coal the Real Need. He had himself recognized that the real need was coal essential to war requirements and that without it our war effort would be dangerously jeopardized. “Let us not blind ourselves to the issue. Nobody could condone the action of the miners. It had to be remembered that all the 1360 miners were equally responsible and went on strike. One hundred and eighty-two were sentenced to a month s imprisonment. That was the situation when the Leader of the Opposition as deputy-chairman of the War Cabinet and the War Administration, made his statement.” - Keeping in mind that coal was essential, it was at this point one was entitled to pass by even the direction of the Court. What was the alternative to that? he asked. It meant that if 182 miners were made to serve their sentences then the remainder of the 1300 miners should also be sent to to the suggestion of the Leader of the Opposition that the, ringleaders should have been arrested, Mr. Coates asked who was to select them. “I am saying there was no alternative but to allow these men to get back to work as soon as possible for the safety of the people of this country. Me had to decide if coal is an essential munition of war and I believe it is an essential link in the whole war machine. Control of the mining industry was not socialization, he continued.. it simplj' marked it out as a war industry and to all intents and purposes the miners were soldiers. Destroy the Enemy.

“What does it matter what sort of men sit beside you—whether he is a Conservative or a Communist—so long as we are together out to destroy the enemy,” declared Mr. Coates. “Is it wrong that in war-time we should bring men together to increase their war effort? I was not prepared to say that coal should not be produced aud I repeat the only course to follow was to get the meu back to work.” Mr. Coates deprecated suggestions that an election should be held at present The situation (lid not warrant that being done. “Have an election by all means, but not now,” he continued. “Nothing would be more desirable than to have an election to clear the air, but at the moment we are not justified in encouraging an election.” He said there was one point which he wished to clear up. It had been said that he came back from Auckland after meeting the coal-owners and had told the War Cabinet that they had agreed with the proposed control regulations. The Prime Minister: They were friendly in their discussions. Mr. Coates said that was so, but it was incorrect to say they had agreed to the regulations. Special Need For Coal. The Minister of Supply and Munitions, Mr. Sullivan, congratulated Mr. Coates on what he described as. his statesmanlike, practical and patriotic speech, an attitude he. had consistently displayed since he joined the War Cabinet. Referring to a charge by Mr. Doidge that the Government was hanging on to office: by avoiding an election, Mr. Sullivan said there would be no hanging on to office by the Government. When the war situation and reasonable security permitted, the Government would go to the country. The Government knew its duty to the electors, and would do its duty as ordinary decent self-respect required that it should do. It was not only the Government, but the Leader of the Opposition and his colleagues who were on trial over the,

coal strike. Mr. Coates’s description of coal as a munition of war was an absolutely correct statement. “Two things coincided before, during and •ffter the strike,” continued Mr. Sullivan. “Au absolute famine of (coal faced the country at a time when the most insistent demand for supplies for special purposes had arisen since the outbreak of war. For security reasons 1 cannot say what those special reasons were, but the necessity for coal was overwhelming. Certain ships had to be sent urgently across the Tasman. That is as far as I can go. No Government placed in the position in which the New Zealand War Cabinet was placed at that particular moment could have taken any other course than this Government did.” The Government would have betrayed the country, the war effort, and the men overseas who needed certain supplies, if it had not taken the steps it did to get the miners producing coal again. Coal could not have been got if the miners had been put in jail, and the ships could not have moved across the Tasman. The whole issue was very difficult, but any question of enforcement of the law in the way the Opposition wanted was overruled by the imperative needs of the war situation.