Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1942. A CALL TO TOTAL WAR.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 March 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1942. A CALL TO TOTAL WAR.

appropriately in accordance with the manifest danger by which the Dominion is faced is foreshadowed in the announcement by the Prime Minister of a total war effort involving new calls on men and women under the National Service Emergency Regulations. Regulations also have been issued providing for compulsory service in the Home Guard. In everything that it does on these lines, the Government is entitled to the instant, loyal and undivided support of the whole community. Criticism would be or will be warranted only in the extent to which resources, human or material, which might be turned to account in strengthening the defence of the Dominion, or in enlarging its power of military attack, are left unused.

In great part war events which have followed quickly one upon another in recent days have intensified heavily the danger in which the .British South Pacific Dominions stand. Not least is a grim and stern warning conveyed in the outcome, ’ now made known in its details, of the Battle of the Java Sea. Once again, lack of adequate preparation and inability to assemble in time an adequate force has brought tragedy upon the Allied cause. The immediate result in this instance was the loss of thirteen ships (including five cruisers) with their officers and men, alter a gallant light to the death against overwhelming odds. The effect in accentuating the menace of Japanese seapower in. the Pacific is to be perceived very plainly.

If the men who died in the Battle of the Java Sea are to be avenged and the cause for which they gave their lives is to be upheld, the people of the South Pacific Dominions, in company with their Allies, must bestir themselves in a fashion worthy of the sacrifices made on their behalf in that battle and in many another. Our duty in New Zealand is to do everything we can in furtherance of the Allied cause and of our own defence. Against the menace that is now developing and expanding rapidly, the utmost we can do will not be too much. If effort is not needed in one direction it certainly will be in another.

We do not know, and are not likely to be allowed to know in advance of events, on what lines Japanese offensive plans will unfold, and of necessity whatever Allied plans of attack in the Pacific are being shaped are also shrouded in secrecy. It is wise to assume, however, that New Zealand, like Australia, must be prepared to rely primarily upon its own resources in repelling attack on its territory. The alternative to the total Avar effort now demanded of us Avould be to invite defeat and disaster. New Zealand and Australia may have to fighthard in defence of their own soil before Allied plans for an overwhelming attack on Japan in the Pacific can be matured.

At the critical stage now reached it becomes the plain duty of the Government to organise our whole available manpower and to make such calls as are necessary and justified upon the women of the Dominion as well. The initial aim must be, not only to give priority to military needs, but to see to it that the labour requirements of industries and services vital to the war effort are satisfied to the greatest extent that our total resources will permit. An economical use of all resources, human and material, so that they may be turned to the greatest possible account, should be demanded equally of military and civil authorities. The time has more Ilian come to concentrate on essentials, and to let nothing whatever stand in the way of the most powerful war and defence effort of which we are capable.

Amongst other things, it is presumably to be taken for granted that any political adjustments that' would facilitate and strengthen the national Avar effort will now be made at once and as a matter of course.

It is most essential, too, that an end should be made forthwith of the periodical stoppages and hold-ups that have occurred in one or two brandies of vital industry. No doubt most of those —a very tiny minority in all of our total working population —who have allowed themselves to be led into action on these Hues have done so heedlessly. Tn the conditions that have now arisen, it may be hoped that, hold-ups will cease. If they continued, the remedy would not be industrial conciliation, but the action that would be appropriate against those who sought, in a time of unprecedented national danger, to impede their country’s war effort.