NEW PRIME MINISTER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 April 1940, Page 5

NEW PRIME MINISTER

CONGRATULATORY MESSAGES FROM NEW ZEALANDERS & PEOPLE ABROAD. VOTING AT THE CAUCUS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. . Messages congratulating him on his selection for the office of Prime Minister were received yesterday by the Hon P. Fraser from all parts of New Zealand and from abroad. By last evening telegrams and cablegrams alone had mounted into a formidable pile. A large number of people also called at Mr Fraser's office to congratulate him personally. So far he has had little time to give any considered thought to the various arrangements that must of necessity be made following his appointment as head of the Government in succession to the kite Rt Hon M. J. Savage. Mr Fraser has his office on the first floor immediately above the Bowen Street entrance to Parliament Buildings, but it will now be necessary for him to move to the Prime Minister's office on the ground floor at the opposite end of the buildings. Presumably this will be done by Mr Fraser some time next week after he has seen the Governor-General and formally submitted to him the names of his Ministers and their portfolios. Thirty-three votes were polled by Mr Fraser at the caucus of the Parliamentary Labour Party on Thursday, when, he was elected to the leadership, He had two opponents, Dr D. G. McMillan. M.P. for Dunedin West, and Mr C. L. Carr, M.P. for Timaru. Dr McMillan, who was nominated by the Rev A. H. Nordmeyer, M.P. for Oamaru, received 12 votes, and Mr Carr, who was nominated by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the Hon W. E. Barnard, received three votes. Mr Fraser, therefore, had an absolute majority. Loyalty and support to the Prime Minister. Mr Fraser, were pledged in a resolution adopted unanimously at a stopwork meeting of seamen held in Wellington recently. The president of the New Zealand Seamen's Union, MiF. P. Walsh, presided. The resolution recorded sincere appreciation of the work done by Mr Fraser during Mr Savage's illness, and pledged him loyal support and co-op-eration as Prime Minister to carry on the great work to which Mr Savage's life was dedicated.