Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 1943. “IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WAR.”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 16 April 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age FRIDAY, APRIL 16, 1943. “IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WAR.”

JNTERPRETED literally, a statement made by the Prime Minister (Mr Fraser) at a conference of national savings organisations in ’Wellington yesterday would mean that, in Mr Fraser’s opinion, this is a Seven Years War, with three and a half years yet to run., Whether the Prime Minister holds that opinion or not, he said’ in plain terms that he could not yet see the end of the war either in Europe or the Pacific and that he believed the war in the Pacific would last longer than the European war. The essential and well-justified point he made was that there is no question meantime of looking for any easing of war demands and the burdens and sacrifices they entail. We cannot (Mr Fraser said) preach any soft doctrine of the times passing and getting good immediately. There is no hope of that. We are just in the middle of the war and we must carry on with all our effort in the field of battle. Irrespective of the probable remaining duration of the war, this is a practical and timely lead. Whatever the length of the war is destined to be, we are in the middle of it in the allimportant sense that victory has yet to be won, at a cost in effort and in sacrifice yet to be determined. We do not know how long the war will last but we do know that it can be shortened only by unflagging and maximum effort. That simple and commanding fact has its bearing on every aspect of the prosecution of the war and it certainly applies ■with full force to the question of national savings with which, the Prime Minister was particularly dealing yesterday. He did not in any way exaggerate when he said that: — Unless the utmost possible was done in the matter of savings, then not only would they be embarrassed now and during the remainder of the war period, but the job of rehabilitation and general reconstruction later would be hopelessly handicapped. It cannot be appreciated too widely or too clearly that in the matter of national savings there is magnificent scope for individual and voluntary-'action capable of simplifying in a most important degree war and after-war economic and financial problems. In this fortunate country there is or should be no question of stinting necessities, particularly where children are concerned, but in the extent to which the civilian population restricts its current consumption to really necessary and useful goods and services and invests the balance of its resources in national savings, the heavy and mounting demands of the war will be more readily and more amply met, and at the same time the disorganisation of national economy that the war entails will be modified and limited. Needless spending in these days is bad business from the standpoint of the individual spender as well as that of the community. In its measure it defeats attempts at regulation and control and inevitably causes inflation. Money that can be and is saved now will yield a far better return to its owners when the stress of war is over, provided common sense is then exercised in allowing time for the industrial adjustment and reorganisation which will again make ample supplies of consumers’ goods available. That exercise of common sense is one of file conditions of averting an unwarranted post-war boom and a following slump. Meantime it is not in doubt that the course of wisdom for the individual and the community is to curtail civilian consumption and to lift savings to the highest possible level. Carried to the lengths that are desirable, voluntary saving may do much to set .limits to the positive action that must be taken by the State in regulating civilian consumption and concentrating national resources on the prosecution of the war.