Dominion At War - As Presented To Readers In England

Taranaki Daily News, 22 August 1942, Page 2

Dominion At War - As Presented To Readers

In England

RECENTLY there have been suggestions that the people of Britain should be told more about the war effort of this Dominion. This article from the London Sunday Express of May 24, just to hand, and written by Henry Keys from Auckland, gives the picture that is presented to the millions of readers of that popular English paper. New Zealanders will look askance at some aspects of the war effort as it is presented and derive mingled feeling's from consideration of other angles. Some may find in the description' of the Dominion at war food for a little thought. Mountainous, misty, windy, a land of enow, of ricli tropical green, of occasional earthquakes and active volcanoes, hot springs and boiling mud. That is New Zealand— a country of extraordinary contrasts heightened, it would seem by violent excesses of nature. The New Zealanders themselves are a quiet, rural people ruled by a RadicalSocialistic Labour Government, in which non-New Zealanders hold the biggest jobs. Mr. Fraser, the Prime Minister, is a native of Ross-shire, Scotland. Five of his Ministers were born elsewhere in the Empire. One is an ex-Australian coal miner, Paddy Webb. Holder of an allimportant Labour portfolio, he has since coming into office turned the industry upside down.

Went to Jail. Five of the present Ministers went to jail during the last war because of their objection to conscription. In this war New Zealand was the first Dominion to adopt conscription as a result of decisions by these self-same men, two ofthem Webb and Semple. ■ Mr. Semple has a son in the air force who served in Malaya and nearly lost his life when the Japanese bombed and sank the boat in which he was being evacuated. Mr. Semple, who is 69, developed a deep-rooted personal hatred of the Japanese after coming into contact with them at Perth, Western Australia, a few years ago. "They are barbarous yellow Bcum," he told me. "We have got to beat them. If we don't, they'll show us no mercy." Mr. Webb greets a stranger with outetretched hand and an invariable cheerful "My name's Paddy. What's yours?" Far from being bashful about the • past, he brought up the subject of his imprisonment himself: "I still think I was right that time," he said. "Our manpower resources then were being bleil white unnecessarily. It is different now We must crush totalitarianism, or be crushed ourselves."

With the total number of men absorbtjd in the three fighting services nearing 10 per cent. of the white population, Mr. Webb to-day thinks the strain on industry is almost too great. Althoug'h partner in a big coal busitfess, he has his own ideas about private enterprise, wages and working conditions. As chairman of "his" Industrial Emergency Council, on which employers and employees are equally represented, he has introduced some of the most extreme leg;slation in the British

Empire. He is in a position to override, within the space of minutes, decisions and awards governing 50 industries made by arbitration courts. This all-powerful, pluto.cratic council has not hesitated to upset very vtinpopular awards. Employers claim that the large-scale introduction of the piece-work payment system has resulted in excessively high wages, and the man in the street feels that way, too. He revolts at the idea of comparatively unskilled labour earning surns up to1 £20 a week. New Zealanders have a rooted objec- , tion to the Government insistence on the maintenance of the 40-hour week. The Government claims, however, that few are working only 40 hours, that many are working 80, and that, anyway, 40 hours is an essential basis for any working week. The modern cities of New Zealand today are abnormally quiet and dull. There is no night life, and few girls and young men are to be seen in the streets.

As there are no reserved occupations here, employers have to fight hard before appeal tribunals to retain key. men and girls working in the factories, timber mills, sheep runs and dairy farms. The efficiency with which women have adapted themselves to men's jobs has been a disconcerting experience to the men, and powerful unions have successfully insisted that they receive men's pay. They believe that is the one way

to ensure that the men wxll get tneu jobs back after the war. The Dominion's occasional earthquakes have earned for it the nickname of 'Shivery Isles." They have also forced the New Zealanders to buttress and weather-board their homes to withstand great shocks. It is even thought they would stand up to air raid toomb-blast. Even with the war at their doorstep, however, few New Zealanders really believe that their country will be attacked They think they are "too small fry" for the Japanese, and that, in any case, the war will be won in Europe. As a matter of fact, the war has not seemed very real ■ to New Zealanders Except that many have been taken away, the war has not made much difference This is largely due to the fact that two years before the outbreak of war imports were greatly restricted by the Government, which has meant that people have for long been unable to buy much in the way of watches, fountain pens and dozens of other things, including photographic films and silk stockings — rationed to one pair quarterly. Women look after stockings as if they are gold, while hundreds of ardent photographers line up for an hour each week at the nearest store to buy their film ra tion. The only foodstuff rationed so far is sugar. Fine Record. Because the Government thought the people were drinking too much, it recently* took steps to reduce the alcoholic content of beer to 6 per cent. It also increased the tax on tobacco and cigarettes, the cheapest now being 9d for 10. For a tiny population— the number of people in the whole country is little greatcr than that of Sydney— New Zealand's war record is superb. Here are the figures:— Under arms in all services 140,000, more than 9 per cent. of the population of 1,600,000. In addition, 100,000 are ln the Home Guard. The war expenditure next year will be at least £83 per head, or £133,000,000. This is more than the cost of the whole of the last war, to the Dominion, an equivalent of 60 per cent. of the national income.