EMERGENCY POWERS.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 May 1940, Page 4

EMERGENCY POWERS.

JN the debate on the Emergency Powers Amendment Bill in the House of Representatives last evening, the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) and his colleagues made it fairly clear that they are intent upon such a call upon the resources of this country, human and material, as will ensure a complete and rounded war effort. Mr Fraser said, amongst other things, that the aim would be to prevent anyone making a farthing of profit out of the war. He said also that the Bill meant “conscription for military and civil purposes, at home or abroad.” With inconsiderable exceptions, made manifest in the failure of the member for Grey Lynn (Mr J. A. Lee) to find a seconder for an amendment providing for a referendum before men should be conscripted for service overseas, the House of Representatives and the country at large are wholly in sympathy with the policy thus outlined.

The Prime Minister was least convincing when he sought to defend his refusal to form a National Cabinet on the ground that the Government was in office with an ample majority in the House and the country. As the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Hamilton) readily admitted, there is no possibility of questioning the Government’s mandate. It is as little open to doubt, however, that the extraordinary powers appropriate to the present emergency would be administered more effectively, and with a nearer approach to completely unanimous support, if the whole of the people were represented in the Cabinet by which these powers are to be exercised.