£l00,000 A DAY

Evening Star, Issue 23687, 21 September 1940, Page 16

£loo,ooo A DAY

HEW ZEALAND'S WAR EFFORT DO PEOPLE REALISE SITUATION f [Per D kited Press Association.] ■ INVERCARGILL, September 20. “We are spending three-quarters of a million a week, more than £100,OvK) a day, on war work to-day. The War Cabinet is a team of five men contracting for And directing expenditure on a scale comparable with the entire Budget of the Dominion only a few years ago.” That was the comment of Mr Adam Hamilton, a member of the War Cabinet, and the Leader of the Opposition* when he was interviewed in Invercargill to-night about the work of the War Cabinet. “We have settled down to the job after the initial stage,” Mr Hamilton; said. “ People often ask what we ara doing and how we are getting on. I am afraid it is not the sort of business that is accompanied with full-page advertisements, but I can assure everyone that we are very much on the job* “ Those who stop to think for an instant,” Mr Hamilton said, “ must realise the magnitude of the task. The War Cabinet directs and controls our entire war effort and the emergency regulations connected with that effort* The work of the Cabinet in the main is secret, and the subjects and information discussed must be retained in th» fewest possible hands; whether it is supplies, ships, equipment, troop movements, munitions, general organisation* or information from various parts of the world. The reason, for this is clear. That is why it is not publicised ih th« normal manner.”

Mr Hamilton explained that the War Cabinet normally met every day. It had met on practically every day since it was set up in July, and it had frequently sat all day. Information received from various parts of the world was considered, and replies were given. Important decisions were made almost every day. All the work was of an immediate and urgent nature. Members of the War Cabinet maintained as close touch as possible with the various training centres so as to make the contact both personal and practical. When asked if he considered, in th» light of his experience on the War Cabinet, that New Zealand was making a reasonable contribution to the Empire’s cause, Mr Hamilton replied;! “ Emphatically yes.” He added: “W» in New Zealand have had ground to make up, but who in the Empire—tho Mother Country included—has not had ground to make up? We are making it up. Wherever New Zealand forces faca the foe they will be trained and well equipped for any emergency. Every day, every hour sees a further improvement in this. No stone must be left unturned. Of course, talk will not win. the war, but I want td say confidently that the plan for New Zealand’s war effort will take our people right up to the collar in the great work ahead.

“The question I ask,” Mr Hamilton continued, is this: Do tha mass of the people in New Zealand, as well as the leaders of the country, yet realise the extrema emergency and dire necessity? I fear sometimes that we who are far from the shattering of bombs and the destruction of conflict are a little apt to continue our pleasureloving, peace-time tempo in thought and action.

“ I would emphasise that we must throw our full weight into the scales for victory,” he concluded. “ We have by no means reached the stage in this conflict where we have not got to exert ourselves to the utmost to succeed.”