Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1941. ELECTION PORTENTS.
Yy ITII rhe intentions of the Government regarding the general election not yet officially disclosed, a statement made the other day by the Prime Minister that “it looked as if the session would end next week” carries, or seems to carry, its own significance. There is hero a suggestion at least, of a rapid, if not, hurried, clearing of the decks for action of another kind. There have since been other indications of a similar import.
That in the extraordinary circumstances now prevailing no announcement has yet been made by the head of the Government on the election question is strange and rather disappointing. The delay might not unreasonably be taken to imply that there is a more or less acute division of opinion on this question among the Government’s own supporters. Whether that division exists or not, the prospect of an early termination of the session and lhe absence of any proposal to extend the life of Parliament can hardly be taken Io mean anything else than that if is intended to go to an election in lhe near future.
If-that decision has been reached it is to be regretted, for reasons that are very plainly apparent and might have been deemed conclusive. These reasons were set forth impressively by the British Prime Minister, Air Winston Churchill, in his latest statement, in the House'of Commons, of the dangers and demands by which the whole British nation is and will continue to be confronted until this war has been fought to a victorious conclusion.
As has been said over and over again no party political issue has been or could be staled in New Zealand which could for a moment compare in importance, at this time, with the supremo issues at stake in the war. The duty of every good New Zealander in I hose days, in Parliament or out of it, is to malic the best emitribntion in his power to the national war effort.
Even on more parly grounds, an election, if it takes place, seems likely to he a rather futile and pointless proceeding. The Leader of the Opposition (.Mr Holland) has staled that if his party is returned to power it will at once seek the formation of a National Government. On the other hand, the Government, with its present big majority, seems rather more likely to lose some strength than to gain additional strength in an appeal to the country.
Both parties are committed to a. full-powered war effort. Why, then, should they not sink their differences for the time being- in furtherance of that effort instead of wasting their own time and that of the community in the clamour and tumult of an election? It is very possible that war developments may occur at any time which would demand imperatively an instant and unimpeded marshalling, of all the resources of the Dominion and would make an election and its political contention unthinkable.
That such a contingency conceivably might arise, was more than hinted al by Mr Fraser on his recent return from his mission abroad. There has to all appearance been no such change in'the international and war outlook as would warrant this contingency now being disregarded. If anything, the contrary seems to be true. Yet, as has been said, internal political developments now suggest, in the extent Io which they suggest anything, that it is intended that- an ejection should take place shortly. In the course of a speech in the House of Representatives last evening—a speech which should do a good deal to clear the way to agreement on the establishment of a national medical service—Mr Fraser siiid that personally he was not enamoured of having one fight in the Middle East and another inside this country at the present moment. A very large proportion- of I lie people of New Zealand will agree with the- Prime Minister in this most heartily. Has not his statement, however, at least as pertinent a bearing on the election issue as on that of a. national medical service?
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 October 1941, Page 4
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681Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1941. ELECTION PORTENTS. Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 October 1941, Page 4
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