Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 1942 THE WAR ADMINISTRATION.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 26 June 1942, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY , JUNE 26 , 1942 THE WAR ADMINISTRATION.

PAR as it falls short of the straight-out constitution of a National Government, the agreement of the two main parties in New Zealand to set up a War Administration consisting of seven members from the Government side and six from the Opposition goes some way towards meeting insistent public demands and probably may be regarded as a promising experiment. What a great majority of the people of the Domin'ion want is an undivided concentration by their political representatives on the ■winning of the war. This, of course, implies an abandonment of party wrangling and bickering. It appears to be felt almost universally, too, that an attempt,' in these times of intense stress and emergency, to divide the country on party lines at a general election would be an outrage and a crime. In some respects, notably in providing for the co-existence of the present domestic Cabinet and a War Administration which, according to the Leader of the Opposition, will be in supreme command of every phase of war activities, the proposals agreed upon are oddly cumbersome, and even contradictory. They rather bear an appearance of an arbitrary decision to regard as solved a problem that has not been solved. On the other hand both the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) and the Leader of the Opposition (Air Holland) have declared with every appearance of sincerity that the arrangement agreed upon can be and will be made to work and have affirmed their belief that the greatest possible degree of national unity in furtherance of the war effort will now be achieved. These assurances most certainly should be put to a working test. If the right results are attained oddities and pecularities in the method of approach to these results may be disregarded. Questions that have been raised regarding the extension of the life of Parliament —particularly whether the extension should be for the duration of the -war and a period not exceeding twelve months thereafter, or from year to year—are not obviously of much practical importance. At present the weight of public opinion is opposed decidedly to time and energy being worse than wasted in the useless turmoil and disturbance of an election. This plainly has impelled the political parties to the agreement under which the War Administration is to be constituted. At any time, however, a strong and well-sup-ported public demand for an election no doubt would be equally irresistible, irrespective of the conditions in which) Parliament had extended its life. It has to bg considered, also, that the, need for an undivided concentration on essentials may be as great as ever when victory has been won, and in the period immediately following that happy achievement.