THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Tuesday, September 15, 1942. THE DOMINION AND THE WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25021, 15 September 1942, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES Tuesday, September 15, 1942. THE DOMINION AND THE WAR

It was desirable that a good deal that was said by the Acting Prime Minister at the week-end with reference to the war effort of the Dominion should be said. In many respects the public lias responded admirably to the demands that have been made upon it for service that is of value in the prosecution of the war, and it is fitting that Ministerial satisfaction with all that has been accomplished in these particulars should be expressed. Mr Sullivan made special mention of “ the mighty job,” as he put it, that,has been performed in the mobilisation and equipment of the armed forces and of the extent of the production, reaching “ record levels,” of various goods, including munitions and foodstuffs. There can be no disposition on the part of anyone who is acquainted with the quality of the service that has been rendered in the preparation of the forces for the grim duties that may be assigned to them or in the spheres of manufacture and production that are related to the war effort to utter one word in derogation of Mr Sullivan’s statement. But there are certain reservations, necessary reservations, which he made. He spoke of “ resistance and refusal to co-operate,” the effect of which has been to weaken the war effort by delaying the attainment of the full results. And he emphasised the “ stiffness ” of the resistance which is offered to the stabilisation of wages and prices. It is somewhat unfortunate that he did not elaborate his argument on this point, for he declared unequivocally that “without stabilisation the country would be faced with disaster.” The average citizen may not realise the gravity of the danger of inflation to which the community is exposed if a policy of stabilisation is not adopted, and the Government in this Dominion has so far neglected what seems to us to be its plain duty to instruct the public in the matter. Nor is the Government as courageous as it should be when, through the lips of the Acting Prime Minister, it compliments the civilian population on “the wonderful amount of real sacrifice ” it has practised. Real sacrifice there has certainly been on the part of large numbers of people, though it has not been a sacrifice at all comparable with that to which the people of Great Britain have cheerfully subjected themselves, but it would be simply idle to suggest that sacrifice in the interests of the war effort has been common throughout the community. If there had been, the appeals that are being organised for co-operation in the national savings scheme would not be so urgently made as they now are. Nor would it have been possible for us to record that at a race meeting in Auckland, at which £57,000 was invested on the totalisator last year, the investments on Saturday last amounted to no less than £96,000. It is difficult to resist the conclusion that persons who speculate so freely as these figures indicate have an imperfect conception of the true significance of the war developments in the Pacific at the present time, or of the need for co-operation in the war effort. Mr Sullivan did not mince words when, for the reason that this was “ a matter of life or death to this country,” he declared that “there must be no relaxing, no slacking, in the war effort.” This is a declaration that cannot be too strongly or too repeatedly carried to the ears of the people of New Zealand. Not otherwise, it would seem, can a great many of them be shaken out of the sense of complacency that is far too prevalent—not otherwise unless they are to be brought to their senses some day by the presence of an enemy raider off our coasts or an enemy bomber in our skies. They have been so far remote from the scene of actual operations that they have apparently got it into their heads that what has happened elsewhere —even so close to New Zealand as New Guinea and the Solomon Islands—cannot possibly happen here. It is earnestly to be hoped that their impressions are not mistaken, but it would, as Mr Sullivan says, be madness to suppose that New Zealand is free from danger.