UNREMITTING EFFORT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 April 1943, Page 3

UNREMITTING EFFORT

DEMANDED BY PRIME MINISTER ADDRESS TO SAVINGS CONFERENCE END OF WAR NOT IN SIGHT. IMPORTANCE OF ECONOMIC STABILITY. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) WELLINGTON, This Day. “ ‘The need is lessening’ will not be the message of the Budget,” said the 1 Prime Minister, Mr Fraser, addressing the National War Savings organisation conference in Wellington yesterday. Just as in war, they must go on to the end, and war production in the factories, on the farms and in industry generally must be maintained and increased, so in their economic life, the basis of which was finance, they must continue on the path that had been set. Stabilisation had been introduced;, without it there would have been chaos and collapse. Mr Fraser charged the members of the organisation to go as missionaries to the people preaching the economic salvation of the country now and in the post-war years. Though the war might be won on the field of battle it was still possible without proper economic organisation for the country to be left hopelessly prostrate financially. He would like to say he could see the end of the war in Europe, but he could not. In the -Pacific he was afraid the war would last even longer. There could not be any let up; they were just in the middle of the war. The Air Force was on the verge of a great expansion and the means of meeting this expense must be provided. He could not fully express the importance attached by the Government and the War Cabinet to war savings. They were as important as the training of fighting men and the production of weapons to arm them and food to sustain them. Savings were an essential part of the war effort and of rehabilitation in the reconstruction period. Unless the people did their utmost with savings, not only would it seriously embarrass the Government now but it would hopelessly handicap the rehabilitation of the men who had saved the country and the restoration of normal industrial life. When Mr Nash brought down the Budget they would realise: the enormous expansion of the country's financial operations. MR NASH LOOKS FORWARD. “One thing we want to avoid more than anything else is getting used to the war,” said the Minister of Finance, Mr Nash. “We must put into our ef- ' | fort every ounce of drive we can musI ter to bring the war to the fastest posI sible successful conclusion.” I Mr Nash visualised the post-war pos--1 sibilities if the best brains of the United States and the British Commonwealth of Nations were united in understanding their responsibilities, not their rights. The only right they had was to as good a standard of living as anyone else in the world, and, if they enjoyed better than some, they should use every endeavour to lift the standard of those less fortunate. There 'could be no comparison between the sacrifices of the civilian population in

New Zealand or in the United States with those of the soldiers in the fighting zones, the millions starving in China and those Greek women and youngsters who wefe starving because their country -fought in the Allied cause. WAR SAVINGS ARMY. Eighteen main centres and chief postai districts are represented by 60 delegates at the conference. There are several women delegates. The chairman, Mr T. N. Smallwood, told the conference that there were now 7800 savings groups, representing 129,000 depositors, in shops, offices, factories. Government departments, and so on. In the general field there were 198.000 depositors, or a grand total of 327,000. So far £10,600,000 had been put into savings irrespective of bonds sold in the various compaigns. Under the quota scheme 25 towns had never failed to reach their mark, representing 78 successive weekly quotas.