A SECRET SESSION.

Taranaki Daily News, 4 July 1917, Page 2

A SECRET SESSION.

HOW IS THE WAR GOING? IMPORTANT PROPOSALS FORESHADOWED. (From Our Own Correspondent). Wellington, June 30. Dr. A. K. Newman has given notice to ask the Prime Minister if he will arrange for a secret session of Parliament to be held in order that members may have placed before them "the true facts" in connection with the progress and prospects of the war. The member for Wellington East, it may be said in passing, has something of a local reputation as a pessimist. He does not accept at their face value cheerful official assurances that the war is proceeding in a satisfactory way for the. Empire. But he will have a certain amount of backing in the House if ever his proposition comes up for debate. Many members have an ideV, that they ought to be given a little of the inside information that it is assumed Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward now possess. The returned Ministers, as a matter of fact, both take a cheerful view of the war situation. They believe that Britain and her Allies have turned the corner and that the path to victory, though it may prove rough and long, lies clear ahead. But it will be found when they make their promised statements that they do not think the time has come for relaxation of effort at any point. They have come from a land where the concentration of thought and effort on the task of attaining victory is extraordinarily complete, am! they may make proposals that will impress their own earnestness on New Zealand people.