COLOSSAL TASK.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 252, 21 September 1940, Page 7

COLOSSAL TASK.

DOMINION’S WAR EFFORT. MR HAMILTON’S REMINDER. Per Press Association. INVERCARGILL, Sept. 20. “We are spending three-quarters of a million a week, more than £IOO,OOO a day, on war work to-day. Hie War Cabinet is a team of five men, contracting for and directing expenditure on a scale not exceeded by the entire Budget of the Dominion only a few years ago.” That was the comment of Hon. A. Hamilton, Minister in the War Cabinet and Leader of the Opposition, when he was interviewed tonight about the work of the War Cabinet.

“We have settled down to the" job after the initial stage. It is now some two months since the War Cabinet was formed,” Mr Hamilton continued. “People often ask what we are doing, and 1)0 w wo are getting oil 1 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. 1 would say that those who stop to think for an instant 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 the lewest possible hands, whether it is supplies, ships, equipment, troop movements, munitions, or general organisation of information from variousparts of the world. The reason for this is clear. That is why it is not publicised in the normal manner.” DAILY MEETINGS. Mr Hamilton explained that the War Cabinet normally met every day. It had met oil 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 given. Important decisions of this nature 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 contact, both personal and practical.

When asked if he considered, in the light of his experience on the War Cabinet, that New Zealand is making and planning to make a reasonable contribution to the Empire’s cause, Mr Hamilton replied: “Emphatically, J “We in New Zealand had ground tomake up. Who in the Empire, the Mother Country included, has not had ground to make up 't We are making it up. Wherever the New Zealand forces face tile foe they will be trained and well-equipped for any emergency. Every day, every hour, sees further improvement in this. No stone must be left unturned. . “Of course, talk will not win the war, but I want to say confidently that the plan for New Zealand’s war effort 1 ' will take our people right up to the collar in the great work ahead,” Mr Hamilton continued. “The question I ask is: Do the mass of the people in New Zealand, as well as their leaders, vet realise the extreme emergency and dire necessity? I fear sometiines that we who are far from the shattering of bombs and the destruction of conflict are a little apt to continue our plea-sure-loving at a peace-time tempo. I emphasise that we must throw our lull weight in the scales for victory. Wo have by no means reached the stage in this conflict where we have not got to exert ourselves to the utmost to succeed.”