PETROL RESTRICTION
CRITICS IN PARLIAMENT DEFENCE BY MINISTER UNCERTAIN POSITION (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. A complete restriction on the supply of petrol for private cars imposed for a short period following the outbreak of the war, was criticised by several National members in the House of Repiresentatives yesterday. This action by the Government was described as too hasty, Mr. H. G. Dickie (Nat., Patea), declaring it savoured of panic, and was withdrawn after a few days.
These statements were all incorrect, replied the Minister of Supply, the Hon. D. G. Sullivan. When war broke cut, he added, nobody in this country or anywhere else could tell what was going to happen or what would be the full list of combatants.
Mr. A. E. Jull (Nat., Waipawa): We do not know yet.
“That is perfectly true,” agreed Mr. Sullivan, who found in this interjection all the more justification for the Government having a greater sense of responsibility than the critics had shown. It would have been nothing short of madness for the Government to have acted otherwise than it had done in respect of petrol and a number of other commodities. On the oil fuel committee were representatives of the fighting services who regarded an adequate supply of petrol as vital to ensure the security of the Dominion. Full information was available regarding tankers coming to the country during the month, and the decision was made on complete data. The whole position had been considered by the National Security Committee. Why, he asked, should any Government make a restriction without full justification when it had to take into consideration the difficulties which would be created in the motor industry and for 16,000 men employed by motor dealers. As soon as it became reasonably certain that the seas were to be open to us and that the tankers were going to arrive, the restrictions were relaxed just to a point which appeared to be in conformity with national security.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GISH19390929.2.40
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20055, 29 September 1939, Page 6
Word count
Tapeke kupu
328PETROL RESTRICTION Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20055, 29 September 1939, Page 6
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
The Gisborne Herald Company is the copyright owner for the Gisborne Herald. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of the Gisborne Herald Company. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.
Log in