TOTAL WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 February 1942, Page 4

TOTAL WAR

PLEDGED BY SIR S. CRIPPS AS LEADER OF HOUSE OF COMMONS ruthless elimination OF LUXURIES. IN FIGHTING THROUGH DARK STAGE. (British Official Wireless.) (Received This Day. 11.50 a.m.) RUGBY, This Day. Sir Stafford Cripps, replying in the House of Commons war debate in his new capacity as Leader of the House, made two points with great emphasis: Firstly, that the present situation had grave aspects and secondly—and leading from this—that luxury living and luxury spending had no place-in Britain’s total war effort and would be ruthlessly eliminated. “Mr Churchill and many members,” he said, “have stressed the darkness of the present stage of the war. Despite the gallantry of the many Allies who are supporting us today in the Far East —the Dutch, Chinese and Americans—it is rightly emphasised that the added onslaught of the Japanese to the already enormous effort of Germany and her satellite powers has cast upon us a burden heavier than any we have yet borne.”

Sir Stafford Cripps added, amid cheers: “It is not the last straw and it will not break the back of the British people. We are no less confident today of ultimate victory, but for weeks, it may be months, we shall pass through times of acute anxiety and difficulty and it is because of this that we must brace ourselves anew in our efforts for victory. The circumstances are grave and the Government is convinced that it is the wish of the people of this country to treat this grave situation with all the seriousness and austerity it undoubtedly demands. For 2£- years now, a great majority of the people of this country have been working their hardest in various spheres to give every help they can, but there still remains a minority who regard their personal interests in a manner not consonant with the totality of effort required. The Government is determined that such an attitude cannot be permitted to exist.” SHARP CRITICISM MUCH GREATER CHANGES DEMANDED. HANDLING OF THE WAR DENOUNCED. (Received This Day, 12.55 p.m.) LONDON, February 25. “We shall never get a full national effort until every man and woman in Britain is conscripted and given a basic minimum wage, with a system of bonuses according to their responsibilities,” said Mr Vernon Bartlett, speaking in the House of Commons debate. “If muddles continue, the next victims of criticism will be Civil Servants. The Government should review the extent to which the dead hand of the Treasury impedes the war effort. The war is going to be won by peoples whom the ruling class in Britain have treated with dislike or contempt and sometimes with fear.”

4 Another member said: “Mr Lyttelton can be brought back to organise production where Lord Beaverbrook failed. He also can fail. No man can solve the question of production without entirely changing the methods we are employing to run the war. There has been no real change in the Government. merely a change of heads. Big business is still firmly in the saddle.”

Mr A. Sloan said: “Mr Churchill’s speech has done nothing to disperse gloom. If anything his speech has deepened the feeling of despair and showed that the greatest incompetence is at the top. Lives have been needlessly thrown away. The whole strategy of the war is in the hands of blunderers.”

“Going into the industrial field from the House of Commons.” Dr. E. L. Burgin observed, “one finds a sense of frustration. There is profound dissatisfaction among the public over the General Staff's handling of the war.” Mr Pethick-Lawrence (Leader of the Opposition) said: “I fully sympathise with the Government’s critics who have demanded the abolition of ‘Blimpery’ in all administrative fields. ‘Blimpery’ refuses to entertain new ideas and endeavours to keep the bottom dog in his place.”