NATIONAL GOVERNMENT ?

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21361, 4 March 1941, Page 4

NATIONAL GOVERNMENT ?

Emphasis placed by the new Governor-General, Sir Cyril Newall, on the efficiency of wartime Britain under completely united political leadership must cause New Zealanders to think and to ask themselves whether they could not achieve much more under the leadership of a truly national government. If the people are divided, even if only by political thought, there will be a drag upon industry and on the relations between men and between institutions. If the people have one aim and one inspiration they will become a far more formidable combination as a fighting or a productive machine.

No reply has yet been made by the Prime Minister to the suggestion of the Leader of the Opposition that an election should be held and that a national government should be formed immediately afterwards regardless of the political constitution of the new House. No better solution of the present difficulties has been offered. Many shrink from the turmoil and political feeling that seem to be inseparable from elections and wish that an election could be held quietly and without a noisy political campaign. Is even that an impossibility ? There is reason to believe that if the Prime Minister accepted Mr Holland’s suggestion and proceeded to an early election he would meet the wishes of a great majority of the people.

If a national government is to be formed, why hold an election ? some people may ask. The reply is, of course, that the people’s votes would provide the best possible basis upon which to found a national government. Certainly a vote was taken three years ago and a Labour Government was returned with a substantial majority of members in the Hoqse. But the point is that a national government has not been formed, and as far as can be seen will not be formed before the expiry of the present Parliament’s term. If the public would quietly and seriously cast its vote at a general election, any drift of opinion in either direction in the past three years would be recorded in the new Parliament, and the vast majority of the people would be satisfied to form a national government on that basis. Can the argument that one party should continue to rule in the present emergency be supported ?