Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1939. AN EARLY SESSION?

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 December 1939, Page 6

Wairarapa Times-Age WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1939. AN EARLY SESSION?

A GOOD many people may agree with the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Hamilton) who has addressed a request on the subject, to the Prime Minister (Mr Savage) that it would be of considerable national advantage to have a session of Parliament at which war organisation could be discussed in light of Mr Fraser’s discussions and experiences abroad. At its rising in October, Parliament was adjourned until February 8 next, but may be summoned at any time before that date.

Although some good work has been done in detail, it can hai’dly be claimed that the country is yet organised as it should be for war. In regard lo the mobilisation of both military and economic resources there is room for a more definite and decided lead than has yet been given. With the fact that Air Fraser, on his return from his mission to Great Britain, will be able to throw valuable new light on many aspects of. the co-ordination of our own war effort with that of the rest of the Empire, it has to be considered that there is now throughout the Dominion a much better and deeper appreciation than there was in October of the demands the war is making and is likely to make. There are many questions of economic and financial adjustment and industrial development on which attention might be concentrated most profitably with the idea of extending cooperative effort to its practicable limits. It is contended widely by farmers, for example, that the demands being made upon them for increased production are unreasonable in view of the conditions in which they are asked to carry on their industry. An early session of Parliament would serve to show', amongst, other things, how far if at all these contentions are justified, and in what manner, if they are justified, a remedy may best be provided. No other prospect is in sight at present than that of a long ordeal of war. The Prime Minister has emphatically declared himself of opinion that the war will not be short. In these circumstances, Parliament should lose no time in giving careful thought to the manner in which the burdens the war is bound to impose may best and most equitably be distributed, full account being taken of the necessity of doing everything possible to encourage increased production in b'oth primary and secondary industries. Nothing calls more obviously for the early attention of Parliament than the methods to be followed in building up and maintaining the military forces of the Dominion. The Government meantime is committed to the policy of voluntary enlistment, but if that system is to stand, at any rate in the strain of a long war, it must be shown that it is equitable and may be relied upon to give the results that are and should be desired. On the face of it, there is a good deal to be said for the alternative of a system of compulsory military service, under which standards of obligation would be established, with due regard, to the competing needs and demands of industrial and other service. An approach might be made in these conditions to a fully effective organisation and employment of the total man-power of the Dominion. Dependence on the voluntary system, on the other hand, raises peculiar difficulties and problems, some of which appear to defy solution. With a limited total Row of recruits —indeed in any conditions short of those of a general muster —it is difficult now and certainly will not become easier as time goes on to distinguish between those who may justly be accepted for military service and those who would be employed with greater advantage to their country in civilian occupations. It needs to be recognised, too, that a voluntary’ system is unworthy of the name if it is accompanied by the exercise of any kind of moral pressure on men to enlist. Where such pressure is brought to bear, inevitably with uneven and varying effect, a so-called voluntary’ system'becomes in fact an inequitable. and unjust system of compulsion. With war demands extending, Parliament and the Government most certainly should give immediate and earnest thought to the question of the method by’ which the fighting forces of the Dominion are to be built up and maintained. In one way and another, the summoning of Parliament at the earliest practicable date following on the return of our Ministerial delegate from Britain very’ clearly would be in the interests of the Dominion and its people. The additional call thus made upon members should awaken no protests in view of the vital service Parliament may render if it deals in the fight spirit with the problems of war organisation now forcing themselves on attention. ITALY ON THE SIDELINE ■ ♦ 1111 exhibition, of mingled helplessness and insincerity, the speech on international affairs delivered a few days ago by' the Italian Foreign Minister (Count Ciano) could not well have been, surpassed. The one heartfelt note he struck perhaps was in his statement that: “It is Italy’s duty to assure her own security’ and independence,” hut under the leadership of Signor Mussolini and Count Ciano, Italy is not.so much assuring her own future as standing nervously aside, watching anxiously to see which way the eat will jump. There is no visible hope of future independence and security’ for Italy save in lhe conditions the Allies are fighting to establish —that is to say, lhe substitution of a reign of law for international brigandage. Having herself engaged in brigandage, at the expense of Abyssinia and Spain, Italy now finds herself in some danger of being victimised by more powerful evildoers. Yet the keynote of Count Ciano’s speech was one of humble subservience to these evildoers and of hostility to the Allies. Inevitably, the Italian Foreign Minister involved himself in some ludicrous inconsistencies. Claiming proudly that Signor Mussolini was the first lo fight Bolshevism, he at the same time reaffirmed the solidarity of the Rome-Berlin Axis, and found excuses, at least, for Germany’s agreement with Moscow, under which she has called off the war on Bolshevism. In this matter, the German Nazi dictatorship sank, in the hope of gain, what it had declared to be its vital principles. Italy’s altitude, as it is expounded by Count Ciano, can In l accounted for only on the assumption that though she fears Russia, she is for the lime being in even greater fear of Germany. Parroting obediently the .Nazi fable that the Allies were attempting to encircle Germany, the Italian Foreign Minister passed over lhe fact that Germany is now submit ting tamely lo encirclement by Russia in tin* Baltic region and that it seems more than likely that the* process may be extended presently to the Balkans, with results threatening disaster to Italy. What has already happened in Poland and the Baltic States and is happening in Einland is a sufficient commentary on Count Ciano’s statement that the purpose of Germany’s agreement with .Moscow was “lo ensure that Russia keep out of lhe encirclement and remain neutral.” The one passage in the Italian Foreign Minister’s speech which may be accepted with complete faith is that “it was clear that no initiative was to be expeeled from Italy, nor was it her intention to take any initiative as mailers stood at tin* moment.” It is plain enough that Italy’s policy al the moment sums up as one of feeble opportunism and that if her present allies achieved their ends, her prospects of becoming a Great Power, or even of maintaining the status of an independent nation would speedily become very dim indeed