WAR ORGANISATION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 13 November 1941, Page 6

WAR ORGANISATION

CONFERENCE IN WELLINGTON MINISTERS & LOCAL BODY REPRESENTATIVES. EMERGENCY PRECAUTIONS DISCUSSED. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. A conference of representatives of local authorities called by the Minister of National Service (Mr Semple) at Parliament Buildings on Tuesday demonstrated the value of co-ordination of local precautions with the general plan for the defence of the Dominion, the delegates being given a good insight into the whole situation. 1 Mr Semple presided and those present included the chiefs of the three Services —Commodore W. E. Parry, Major-General E. Puttick, and Air Commodore H. W. L. Saunders —Mr Wilson, Associate Minister of National Service, Messrs T. Jordan (president of the Municipal Association), S. Blackley (acting for Mr C. J. Talbot, chairman of the Counties’ Association), J. A. C. Allum (Mayor of Auckland), T. C. A. Hislop (Mayor of Wellington), E. H. Andrews (Mayor of Christchurch), and A. H. Allen (Mayor’ of Dunedin). The Prime Minister (Mi’ Fraser), who, with several members of the War Cabinet, attended at the opening of the conference, gave the delegates a survey of the war situation, particularly in the Far East, and mentioned confidential facts regarding the report on New Zealand’s defence activities prepared for the Government by Lieu-tenant-General Sir Guy Williams. The conference discussed the development oif emergency precautions and future activities of this nature, the object of the exchange of opinion being to promote close co-operation between the Government and local authorities, whose representatives would be able to assure their citizens that what is being done is essential in the public interest.