Post by Dave Homewood on Oct 15, 2008 17:49:54 GMT 12
What do you guys think about Peter Fraser? He was New Zealand's Prime Minister from early 1940 right through the war, and in fact was practically running the country for some time before then as Michael Savage was ill with cancer.
On the surface he seems to have been a strong leader for New Zealanders during the war and he practically turned the country into one big war machine, training men, growing crops and foodstuff, making munitions and machinery, and offering bases for our Allies.
However there are some strange things about him. In 1916 he refused to serve in the Army when called up, claimed the conscription was bad and he spent the rest of the war in prison. he was then a confirmed contentious objector.
However in WWII he actually introduced conscription for the Army (the RNZAF and Navy remained voluntary). When people decided to object on the grounds of conscience under his watch they also got hard labour prison sentences. I find this odd as surely he must have been against such treatment having had it himself. I wonder what persuaded him to treat them so badly too. Some objectors who objected on the grounds of religion were not imprisoned but were manpowered into munitions and also the Home Guard so basically there were serving the war effort against their will anyway.
Something else that was despicable about Fraser was his 1944 stunt to look good for the elections by bringing home 1600 men of the Second Division from the Mediterranean for a furlowe leave at home, and then force them to go back at gunpoint when they protested that there were thousands of fit men who'd done nothing and were in comfortable jobs at home making huge money, while they had fought for four years, got paid bugger all and risked their lives.
I know a lot of the men really lost faith in Fraser then, though the public never really got to know about the furlowe protests, it was hushed up.
Imagine how bad it would be to be ordered back to the front at gunpoint by a man who refused to go to war himself, what a hypocrite. Doctors all over the country faked the paperwork to get many of the 1600 off going back on medical grounds, but many did return and a lot of them died.
I wondered what people here think of Fraser. Was he a good, great or terrible leader?
On the surface he seems to have been a strong leader for New Zealanders during the war and he practically turned the country into one big war machine, training men, growing crops and foodstuff, making munitions and machinery, and offering bases for our Allies.
However there are some strange things about him. In 1916 he refused to serve in the Army when called up, claimed the conscription was bad and he spent the rest of the war in prison. he was then a confirmed contentious objector.
However in WWII he actually introduced conscription for the Army (the RNZAF and Navy remained voluntary). When people decided to object on the grounds of conscience under his watch they also got hard labour prison sentences. I find this odd as surely he must have been against such treatment having had it himself. I wonder what persuaded him to treat them so badly too. Some objectors who objected on the grounds of religion were not imprisoned but were manpowered into munitions and also the Home Guard so basically there were serving the war effort against their will anyway.
Something else that was despicable about Fraser was his 1944 stunt to look good for the elections by bringing home 1600 men of the Second Division from the Mediterranean for a furlowe leave at home, and then force them to go back at gunpoint when they protested that there were thousands of fit men who'd done nothing and were in comfortable jobs at home making huge money, while they had fought for four years, got paid bugger all and risked their lives.
I know a lot of the men really lost faith in Fraser then, though the public never really got to know about the furlowe protests, it was hushed up.
Imagine how bad it would be to be ordered back to the front at gunpoint by a man who refused to go to war himself, what a hypocrite. Doctors all over the country faked the paperwork to get many of the 1600 off going back on medical grounds, but many did return and a lot of them died.
I wondered what people here think of Fraser. Was he a good, great or terrible leader?
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