ACCUSATION OF WRECKING

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20991, 19 December 1939, Page 6

ACCUSATION OF WRECKING

Mr Savage’s Sunday night reply to the resolutions of the recent Waikato mass meeting was far more eloquent than his formal acknowledgment of the representations immediately after the meeting. It is clear from the Prime Minister’s statement that he regards the meeting as without merit and as a definitely unpatriotic action. “That is how some people are helping New Zealand to win the war,” he commented. “If you ask me, I seriously believe there are people who are doing their level best to wreck the Government in all its military as well as its economic activities instead of helping us to win the war.” Mr Savage is, of course, entitled to his opinion regarding how the war campaign should be conducted and how the economy of the country should be managed, but to accuse the thousands of Waikato people concerned in the mass meeting of attempting to sabotage New Zealand’s war effort is not justifiable. Every speaker at the meeting was warmly applauded when he appealed for the utmost effort to make the country efficient in its fight against the enemy. Even the' resolutions were couched in the most patriotic terms, and anyone who attended the meeting could not fail to be impressed with the obvious desire of all concerned to improve the ability of the country to meet the shocks of war. Those thousands of people could not justifiably be called wreckers of the military and economic activities, and such an appelation is not calculated to encourage co-operative effort. Certainly the mass meeting could not be described as a rally of political supporters of the Government Party, but it was composed of honest thinking people whose opinions of the most effective military and economic activities differ in many respects from those of Mr Savage. Since the policy of the Government must be presumed to be to become as efficient as possible in both spheres, surely the considered representations of so many people were entitled to serious study by the Government and a reply that recognised the sincerity of even the political opposition. All that was necessary was for Mr Savage to show by careful reasoning that the arguments of the mass meeting were unsound and not in accordance with the military or economic needs of New Zealand. Such proof would have been a far more effective reply to the mass meeting than a mere accusation of wrecking.