MANPOWER DEBATE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 17 March 1943, Page 4

MANPOWER DEBATE

SPEECHES IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES GOVERNMENT PROPOSALS. CRITICISED BY OPPOSITION LEADER. (By Telegraph—Press. Association.) . WELLINGTON, March 16. In the House of Representatives, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr S. G. Holland, said he wished to acknowledge freely the complexity of the manpower problem, but he thought the proposals submitted by the Government in its report to members of the; House would only make confusion worse confounded. He suggested that there should be a committee of the House to overhaul the whole manpower position. The Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates contended that the future was uncertain, and. that it would be wrong to relax our efforts. New Zealand had played a part everyone could be proud of, and the Government and people responsible for that part deserved every credit. He intimated that it had been decided to retain the New Zealand Division in the Middle East, and that provision had been made to reinforce that Division for twelve months ahead, and also the forces in the Pacific. Mr W. J. Polson contended that the debate was so much beating of the air, because the Government had already made its decisions and these could not be defeated in the House. The Premier (Mr Fraser) interjected that no decisions had been reached arid that the proposals before the House were in the nature of recommendations only. The Minister of Supply (Mr Sullivan) predicted that by the end of the year there would be a net increase in manpower and womanpower available in the Dominion. The debate was interrupted by the luncheon adjournment at 1 p.m.