WHY MR HOLLAND RESIGNED

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 77, 21 October 1942, Page 4

WHY MR HOLLAND RESIGNED

A CORRESPONDENT yesterday signing herself "A Working Woin- ' an” asks lor a simple and non-par-tisan explanation of just why Mr , Holland resigned from the War Administration. She is entitled to itThe reasons will bear repetition and I the smokescreen which has been thrown up round Mr Holland's action both inside and outside Parlia- | ment has tended to cloud the real : issue. our correspondent will agree that Mr Holland himself knows best why he resigned and we therefore cannot do better tl;an , quote his own words from the debate j in the House as recorded by “The Mail's" Parliamentary reporter: In 11139 the most drastic conditions co\ •ering the control of workers and employers during war time were passed, but, during the Waikato strike, he found that the Government was proposing something which struck : at the root of our judicial sys- ! tern. . . When asked to vote for such proposals, it was too much for him, and resignation . was the only course compatible ' with self-respect and honour. Thus the simple truth is that Mr i Holland gave up office rather than | compromise on a question of prini ciple, a principle lying at the very foundation of democracy—that the Government shall govern. It was not that a National Government should govern or that a Labour ' Government should govern, but that i the elected Government of whatever ! party or whatever combination of parties should govern. He did not [ resign for his own benefit or mate- | rial gain because his action cost him [ (among other, things) the position, opportunities and emoluments at- | taching to Ministerial office. Under our system of government it is a well-established custom that, when a ‘ Minister cannot accept the policy agreed to by his Cabinet colleagues, he should resign and this is what Mr Holland did.