FULL SUPPORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 June 1940, Page 5

FULL SUPPORT

GIVEN TO GOVERNMENT AT EMERGENCY PARTY CONFERENCE. PRIME MINISTER RECEIVES OVATION. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day By an overwhelming majority, stated officially to be nine to one, an emergency conference of the Labour Party held in the Town Hall, Wellington, yesterday approved the joint statement on war policy issued by the national executive of the Labour Party and the national council of the Federation of Labour, whereby the actions of the Government up to the present were endorsed and a free hand was given the Government for the further prosecution of New Zealand’s war effort.

The opposition to the statement, which was comparatively small, was officially stated to concern possible future developments. On the policy the Government had pursued up to the present there was general agreement.

There was an attendance of 506 delegates, representing 47 Labour representation committees, 152 unions and 256 branches. The national president, Mr J. Roberts, presided. Others on the platform included the Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, and other members of Cabinet. Most of the Labour members of Parliament attended as branch delegates.

In opening the conference. Mr Roberts introduced the Prime Minister, remarking that when Mr Fraser had spoken to the Easter conference he had done so as Acting-Prime Minister, Mr Fraser received an ovation, lasting nearly five minutes. His address which lasted an hour and a half, dealt with the war situation and the joint statement, by which the Government sought a free hand. It was announced that at the conclusion of his address he received “another tremendous ovation.”

There were in all 16 speakers, including the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash, and the Minister of Public Works, Mr Semple, Mr Roberts moved the adoption of the statement, which was seconded by the national vice-president, Dr McMillan, M.P., and carried by a ninc-to-one majority. It was officially stated that-, there were many expressions of opinion that the Government, having been elected by a large majority of the people, was competent to carry on the war effort without taking into Cabinet any members of the Opposition. The conference concluded with a vote of complete confidence in the Prime Minister, and the Government.