PARLIAMENT IN WAR TIME

Wairarapa Times-Age, 28 November 1939, Page 6

PARLIAMENT IN WAR TIME

CONTROLLING THE GOVERNMENT We do not expect of the Commons control over the strategy of the war, writes Professor A. Berricdale Keith in “Reynolds’ News.” Yet there are certain essential duties which it alone can accomplish. It must secure that there shall be no repetition of the scandalous disparity between the emoluments of those at the front and of the sheltered workers of every degree; that the orgy of profiteering we suffered from in 1914-19 shall not be repeated; and that the financial resources of the country shall be wisely spent for the national good, not for the enrichment of privileged individuals. It must also control the exercise of the utterly unfettered legislative power conferred on the executive by the Emergency Powers (Defence), the National Defence (Armed Forces), and many other Acts just passed. Urgency has dictated the rule that Orders in Council made thereujider shall not be submitted for prior approval to the Commons, but it has the power to annul within a brief period after enactment. More important still is scrutiny of the orders and regulations, power to make which is granted to many authorities by these Orders in Council. Over the former the House has no direct control whatever but so long as it meets it has the weapon of inquiry and can in various ways criticise.