DECLARATION OF WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 September 1939, Page 4

DECLARATION OF WAR

PARLIAMENT UNANIMOUS

ACTION OF GOVERNMENT CONFIRMED.

DEMONSTRATION OF LOYALTY

(By Telegraph—Press Association.! WELLINGTON. This Day

‘I am confident that the whole House and the whole country will approve of the decision that the Government has taken, and that a united Dominion — pakeha and Maori alike —will place itself at the disposal of the Government for the purpose of taking every possible step within our power to further the common cause,” said the ActingPrime Minister, Mr Fraser, when moving in the House of Representatives yesterday, confirmation of the Government’s decision to stand side by side with Britain. The motion was seconded by the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Hamilton. “The conflict that has broken out is not one between one nation and another, or between one group of nations and another —it is plainly and obviously a conflict between two diametrically opposed conceptions of international relationships, between reason and force,” said Mr Fraser. “Every possible step has been taken to avoid hostilities; every approach that the most peaceable mind could devise has been made to those responsible for this catastrophe. Force has been allowed too long to have its way in the world; it must now be overcome, and it will be overcome.

“I am confident that every member of this House will support the resolution that I have moved, and join with the Government at this moment in an expression of our continued and unshakeable loyalty to His Majesty the King, and to our association with the United Kingdom and the other members of the British Commonwealth who have taken up the sword with us. “I approve and confirm the action taken by the Government in proclaiming the existence of a state of war between. his Majesty’s Government and the Government of the German Reich,” said Mr Hamilton. “I endorse the sentiments expressed by the Acting-Lead-er of the House and I also express to him our undoubted loyalty in the cause to which the Empire has set its heart.”

The motion was carried unanimously and members then rose and sang the National Anthem and gave cheers for the King.