“PROVE DEMOCRACY”

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21209, 4 September 1940, Page 8

“PROVE DEMOCRACY”

STABILISING COSTS ECONOMIC CONFERENCE QPENS (By Telegraph.—Press Association) WELLINGTON, Wednesday When opening the economic conference in Parliament Buildings today, the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser, extended a cordial welcome to the representatives of the Government, farmers, manufacturers, employers and all sections of workers. He said it was exactly 12 months ago today since the Dominion threw in its lot with Britain in the fight for democratic freedom and for the right for any people to live their own lives without constant fear of aggression and enslavement. “You have been invited to survey the general economic position of the country, under war conditions, in order to consider the possibility of stabilising costs, prices and wages and also to discuss expanding production so that the strain of war expenditure may be successfully borne and the standard of living maintained as far as possible,” said Mr Fraser. “It would be idle to deny that this is a difficult task. It is one that faces every nation in wartime and every nation has to find its own solutions in accordance with its particular economic circumstances.” Mr Fraser said that at this conference they must prove the case for democracy by showing that free men could find a way and were not unwilling to travel a difficult path when the good of the people would thus be served.