NEW ZEALAND DIVISION

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 January 1943, Page 4

NEW ZEALAND DIVISION

MR HOLLAND’S STATEMENT. MINISTER IN REPLY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. Describing Mr Holland’s statement as “most unjustified,” the Minister of Supply, Mr Sullivan, last night made the following reply: — “Recently in Christchurch I made the following statement: ‘Every member of Parliament knows that the Prime Minister has been absolutely frank with Parliament, has told them everything, and has read to them the cablegrams that passed between the Prime Minister of Britain and Mr Fraser. Every member of Parliament knows that Parliament itself and not the Government has made the decision as to the course that is being followed, and that that decision was made unanimously by Parliament without a single dissentient voice.’ “Mr S. G. Holland flatly, indeed blatantly, denies that the decision as to the course being followed was made by Parliament. “Mr Holland’s denial is the most incredible experience in my public life. I can only say, to be generous, that either Mr Holland’s memory has completely failed him and blacked out in his mind the recollection of the immediate past, ox - that he is confused as to the issue being discussed. If I tell him that the War Cabinet has accepted and is carrying out the will of Parliament as expressed by Parliament, will he understand that? True there was no division, as he contends, but there were many speeches and a declaration by the Prime Minister as to what he understood the will of Parliament to be, and that declaration passed unchallenged. Perhaps that will clear Mr Holland’s mind, and he will now withdraw his most unjustified statement.” Parliament was never given the opportunity- to discuss where the New Zealand Division would serve, said the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Holland, replying on Saturday to the statement by the Minister of Supply, Mr Sullivan, that Parliament as a whole and not the Government or War Cabinet unanimously reached the decision followed.