POLICY OF DRIFT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 September 1941, Page 5

POLICY OF DRIFT

—» AND CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE ALLEGED BY MR LEE. REGARDING IMPORTANT WAR PROBLEMS. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON. This Day. There was at the moment a conspiracy of silence and a policy of drift, said Mr Lee (Democratic Labour, Grey Lynn), in the House of Representatives last night. Members of the House were avoiding discussion of cer-. tain problems of which they were aware: How much conscription was there to be for overseas? How many homes of married men were to be broken up? How many men were to be kept in New Zealand? If men were to continue to go away what industries were to be sacrificed? What was going to be done to mobilise labour?

Since conscription, increased tension in the Pacific had made more evident the necessity for a force for home defence. There was also a greater realisation of the fact that fighting men must have equipment at least equal to that of the enemy. It was, therefore, necessary to consider whether New Zealand’s commitments for overseas were too large. The situation was different from that in the last war when the Dominion was a substantial importer of manufactured goods; this time it had to rely largely on its own resources.

“We can’t maintain our standard of living if we continue to take away thousands of skilled men, unless we mobilise those who are unfit for war and those who are unskilled and make them fit for production, and unless we persuade some people who play bridge and discuss the desperate servant situation to take up a broom and a vacuum cleaner and do some work for themselves,” said Mr Lee. If the right sort of lead were given he believed many such people would voluntarily accept the task of trying to add to the nation’s income.