New Zealand's First Year of War

Abstract

\A7HERE Britain goes, we go. Where she stands, we stand, said the late Prime Minister of New Zealand, Mr. M. J. Savage, on September 6, I939. The same point was made by the late Mr. Savage's successor, Mr. Peter Fraser, on June I9, I940, when he said: Whatever decision the British Government took in the difficult circumstances in which it found itself, it would be understood, accepted and supported by New Zealand to the very end. These statements of successive Labor Prime Ministers sum up the attitude of a majority of New Zealanders. New Zealand's open crusading for collective security had ceased a year before the war broke out, and it was no surprise when New Zealand promptly allied herself with the United Kingdom in September i939. Without previously consulting Parliament, which however was wholeheartedly behind the decision, the Labor Cabinet swiftly declared war. The New Zealand Government placed its entire manpower and economic resources at Britain's disposal and took immediate statutory authority to organize this manpower and these resources and to suppress any dissenting minority. After the invasion of the Netherlands and the collapse of France, New Zealand in June extended this authority and gave the Government power to call up every man and to take any property for war purposes. This followed the Churchill Government's similar enactment. In the same month a War Council widely representative of political and economic interests was formed, and the following month a War Cabinet composed of three members of the Labor Party and two members of the conservative Opposition took charge of New Zealand's war effort. New Zealand is cooperating in the Empire Air Force scheme and is aiming to contribute annually 3,700 airmen trained or partly trained. The New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy automatically passed under Admiralty control at the outbreak of the war. There has been little publicity on the disposition of the Naval