FREE HAND

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 158, 5 June 1940, Page 8

FREE HAND

GOVERNMENT AND WARSIDELIGHTS OF CONFERENCE. (By Telegraph—Special to Standard.) WELLINGTON, June 4. By 900 votes to 100 the emergency conference of the Labour Party lias given the Government a free hand to prosecute the war effort. This greatly eases tfie task of the Prime Munster (Hon. P. Fraser) in promoting political unity on this point. A most interesting feature of the conference was the spirited attitude of Mr Fraser in reply to a delegate who wished to know if Cabinet would resist the establishment of a National Government. v Mr Fraser, it is stated, without a moment’s hesitation firmly declined to accept any proposal which would tie the Government’s hands on war policy. Another vivid phase of the conference was Hon. H. Semple’s speech. Accused of ‘‘turning a somersault” over conscription, the Minister of Public Works quoted from a pamphlet he wrote in the last war showing that lie had never opposed men being required to fight for their country and everything they held dear. He had always been a fighter and would continue to fight for what he considered the right thing. He had in the« World War opposed the policy which failed to conscript wealth and permitted individuals to make huge profits at the expense of tbo nation. Some of the delegates whose branches limited their authority to support the complete “all-in” plan were so impressed by the speeches of Messrs Fraser, Nash and Semple that they expressed personal approval of the Ministers’ viewpoint, one preferring not to vote. The conference was not given detailed information on future political plans. Much _ depends on the frank exchange of opinions in the secret session to-morrow.