WAR CABINET

Waikato Times, Volume 127, Issue 21224, 21 September 1940, Page 10

WAR CABINET

CONCENTRATION ON WORK I £IOO,OOO DAILY EXPENDITURE j MAKING UP LEEWAY (By Telegraph.—Press Association) INVERCARGILL, Friday “We are spending £750,000 a week, more than £IOO,OOO a day, on war work today. The War Cabinet is a team of five men contracting for and directing expenditure on a scale not exceeded by the entire Budget of the Dominion only a few years ago,” said the Leader of the Opposition, the Hon. A. Hamilton, a member of the War Cabinet, when interviewed in Invercargill tonight. “We have settled down to the job after the initial stage. “It is now some two months since the Weir Cabinet was formed,” Mr Hamilton continued. “People often ask what we are doing and how we are getting on. The work of the Cabinet in the main is secret and the subjects and information discussed must be retained in the fewest possible hands, whether it is supplies, ships, equipment, troop movements, munitions, general organisation or information from various parts of the world. The reason for this is clear. That is why it is not publicised in the normal manner.” All Day Sittings Mr Hamilton explained that the War Cabinet normally met every day. It had met nearly every day since it was s\t up in July, and it had frequently sat all day. Information received from various parts of the world was considered and replies given. Important decisions of this nature were made almost every day. All the work was of an immediate and urgent nature. The members of the War Cabinet maintained as close touch as possible with the various training centres so as to make contact both personal and practical. “We in New Zealand had ground to make up,” Mr Hamilton continued. “Who in the Empire, the Mother Country included, has not had ground to make up? We are making it up. Wherever New Zealand forces face the foe they will be trained and well equipped for any emergency. Every day, every hour sees further improvement in this. No stone must be left unturned. Extreme Emergency “Of course, talk will not win the war, but I want to say confidently that the plan for New Zealand’s war effort will take our people right up to the collar in the great work ahead,” Mr Hamilton continued. “The question I ask is: Do the mass of the people in New Zealand, as well as their leaders, yet realise the extreme emergency of the dire necessity? I fear sometimes that we who are far from the shattering of bombs and the destruction of conflict are a little apt to continue the pleasure-loving peace-time tempo in thought and action today. “I emphasise that we must throw our full weight in the scales for victory. We have by no means reached the stage in this conflict where we have not to exert ourselves to the utmost to succeed.”