STRONG GOVERNMENT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20081, 30 October 1939, Page 11

STRONG GOVERNMENT

PRAISE FOR AUSTRALIA ATTITUDE TO WAR CONFIDENT OUTLOOK (Par Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. Sir Norman Nock, Lord Mayor of Sydney, in the course of an interview, mentioned the disappointment of the Australian returned soldiers in not being able to visit New Zealand as arranged to return the New Zealand Diggers visit when participating in the Anzac Day parade on the occasion of the sesquicentennial celebrations at Sydney.

Sir Norman Node also said that there was a psychology of confidence in Australia about the outcome of the war.

“We don’t want to have to set to again to rehabilitate industry and we are keeping it going at full strength,” he said.

Mr. Peter Barr, of Dunc-din, who is also back from Australia, said that Australia was fortunate in having a man like Mr. R. C. Menzies as Prime Minister. Ho thought that the position of the Government in Australia had been strengthened since the declaration of war, largely by reason of Mr. Menzies’ capacity as a speaker and as a result of a determination to carry out the programme the Government had laid down.

With the exception of the Labour leader, Mr. J. Curtin, the principle of compulsory service for home defence was strongly approved. He had heard Mr. Menzies speak on two occasions on defence matters. One speech was at a huge congregation of men in the largest Presbyterian church in Melbourne, and that despite the fact that it was a Sunday afternoon and that the meeting was in a Presbyterian Kirk, the men rose to their feet and cheered Mr. Menzies when he began to speak.