NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE

Marlborough Express, Volume LXXVI, Issue 244, 16 October 1942, Page 5

NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE

LATE SITTING BY HOUSE

CHALLENGES AND CHARGES. NEW ZEALAND'S DANGER.

P.A.

WELLINGTON, Oct. 16.

The debate on the Opposition's no-confidence motion and the Governmcnt's amendment to it was continued in the House of Representatives yesterday. Urgency was taken with a view toi finishing the debate last night, but at an - early hour this morning it was still continuing. Many speakers took part, including the Minister for Armea Forces and War Co-ordination, Mr Coates, who emphasised the grave threat to New Zealand as a result of the southward thrust of the enemy. He was followed by the Minister for Supply, Mr Sullivan. Several other Ministers contributed to the dis~ cussion, and other Opposition speakers included Mr Fortaes (Hurunui) and the National Party Ministers who resignecl from the War Administration. MR LEE'S VIEW. Mr Lee (Democratic Labour, Grey Lynn) stated that he did not intend to take part in the division as he had no enthusiasm for the motion or amendmient. The debate was the result of a party squabble. "I want to know what the Opposition is going to do to Mr Coates and Mr Hamilton. Is the National Party going to bring out its political firing squad?" In his opinion the rank and file of the party would agree with Messrs Coates and Hamilton in the present situation rather than with the Leader of the Opposition.

MR FORBES SEE.S POLITICAL TRICK. The contention that Parliament was the place to consider the question of taking over control of the mines was advanced by Mr Forbes (Opposition, Hurunui). The Leader of the Opposition, he added, had gone into the War C'abinet on condition that any controversial matter was avoided as far as possible. The Leader of the Opposition could not remain in the War Cabinet in view of the way he was treated. He could not understand why the Prime Minister and the others in the War Cabinet had shown such a hostile attitude toward.s thei Leader of the Opposition, and it seemed as if they wanted to drive him out. "We have the amendment moved by the Prime Minister," said Mr Forbes. "That is an old political trick. This is not a time for political trickery and I am going to vote against it. I won't vote for a Government that handled the Waikato strike like thisi one did. The introduction of the' war effort into the amendment is simply dragging the war effort in the dirt." CHALLENGE TO RESIGN. A challenge to the Leader of the Opposition to resign his seat in Parliament and to go to the poll on the present issue was issued by Mr Kyle (Independent, Riccarton). He saicl that he was prepared tc resign his seat in, Riccarton if the Leader of the Opposition would resign his, in Christchurch North. Mr Coleman ( Government, Gisborne) : Contest, which seat? Mr Kyle: Contest Christchurch North. "I disagreed with the resolution of the ca.ucus that the miners be put in gaoi and thought it better to retire," Mr Kyle continued. "I am an Independent simply because I could not follow the resolution before the National Party caucus, nor could I support a resolution of loyalty and confidence in thei Leader, so I retired when that motion was going to be tabied. I did not want to be expelled. Thei Leader had expounded the theory that those who could not give allegiance to the party could not remain in it. Rather than be pushed or asked to get out I retired." COUNTRY WARNED. 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 emphasised by Mr Coates, Minister for Armed Forces and War Co-ordination. 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 he 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 in similar circumstances. He had himself recognised that the real need was coal essential to war re'quirements and that without it our war effort would be dangerously ! jeopardised. "Let us not blind ourselves to the issue. Nobody could condone the action of the miners. It had to be remembered that . all the 1300 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 rere ainder of the 1300 miners should also be sent to gaol. Referring 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 i

to get back to work as soon as possible for the safety of the people of this country. We 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 socialisation, he continued. It simply marked it out as a war industry and to all intents and purposes the miners were soldiers. SPECIAL NEED FOR COAL. The Minister for Supply andMunitions, Mr Sullivan, congratulated Mr Coates on what he described as his I statesmanlike, practical and patriotic speech, an attitude he had consistently displayed since he joined the War Cabinet. 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 wai' was an absolutely correct statement. "Two things coincided before, during and after the strike," continued Mr Sullivan. "An 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 I 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. J the steps it did to get the miners producing coal again. Coal could not have been got if the miners had been put in gaol, 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 over-ruled by the imperative needs of the war situation. AMENDMENT DEFEATED. The division on the no-confidence motion resulted in its being defeated by 47 to 17, and Mr Fraser's amendment was carried on the same vote. Those' voting for the motion were:— h eland, Bodkin, Broadfoot, Cobbe, Doidge, Forbes, Goosman, Gordon, Mrs Grigg, Harker, Holland, Kidd, Polson, Ransom, Roy, W. Sullivan and Sutherland.