The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1919. THE TASK OF DEMOBILISATION

Auckland Star, Volume L, Issue 12, 14 January 1919, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 14, 1919. THE TASK OF DEMOBILISATION

for the eauac that lack* asmatanoe. For the icrong that neegs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can «fc

Now that the war has come to an end and the terms of peace are. speedily to l>e arranged, every one of the belligerent countries and governments is facing the gigantic task of restoring the lighting men to their homes und occupations. The civilised world has never yet had to handle a problem of such magnitude, because no armies of such huge dimensions have ever before been gathered together. And the successful completion of this work involves a great, deal more than the personal prestige of the statesmen or the political ascendancy of the parties who for the time hold oliice. i)n the speedy repatriation of the soldiers and their prompt and effective absorption into the various forms of w,,rk in which they have hitherto been en-mgrd which they now intend to lake up. depends the whole industrial and economic future of all the countries concerned, and perhaps their political future as well. All this must be obvious ugh to anyone who considers the question intelligently. Vet in the case of New Zealand it is not easy to see how the necessary preparations can be made in tune to ensure successful demobilisalion, nor is it easy to discover what practical steps have yet been taken

towards this end, .-.I leant on a scale in any way commensurate witli the -i o|h- of the problem. Some twelve i thousand of our returning soldiers are , now on their way back l<. New Zealand. l and ho far a< we ran judge, our plans I for re|uuriution and the rest..ration of indus-t ri:il equilibrium here are inadequate in the extreme. It may throw | -<>""■ I >*jh t upon our own problem to! consider briefly the efforts that are now being miide by the British Covern-j ment to deal with the colossal ta.sk of j demobilisation by which it is now I confronted. The demobilisation (-''heme drawn up l>y the. Uritii.ii authorities not only provides for the d.-persal of the men, but al-o f,,r their aworption. ns far as pos sible. into the industrial life of the '-nmmunity when they return to civil life Millions of men taivcn from indue-1 trial life to fight the rration'a battle* have now t<. <).c resettled in a wi;p.:

earninc: ca.pantv, and the question has been pnyaginj; the attention i.f th.London Hoard of Trade from :i s fnr i>a.k iiM tlie early part, of mili. An intimate co-operation has been ostablishnd bct-wrn-n military and civil ofTrcials, so tlrat the men may l-ve dispersed ally and not in such numbers as to ffvvanip the labour market. Time will be re<]uire»l for the dilTerent war iiidust ri.-s to adjust themselves to peace conditions

and engage in jhmiv nativities, and during- the transition period there may actually Ik- koiiic increase of unenrployinent. If. therefore, the men were to !«■ Kent back haphazard in great liatches without any thought for their future, the evil of unemployment fwould t>e intentiilieil. To meet this difficulty the oecuimtinn followed by every man prior U> enlistment has been carefully registered, nnd tli,. army has been classified into occupational groups. 'Hie I-abniir Bureau, acting 'with knowledge of the ability of particular trades to absorb lalxnir. will inform the War Office of there rei)uirement«, and thus be able to indicate the Wt time at which men in any particular group should return to cm I life. All the men who have workwaiting f< r them will be dispersed jus soon .-us p.k-tiible, ami prior consideration will lc to the claims of the men who have U-.-n in the field. The system of dispersal was rehearsed long before the dose of the war. so that there should be no flaws when the time for demobilisation arrived. F.ngland and Scotland are to be divided into twelve area*, containing eighteen stations, and the men will be sent to the dis|>ersal stations nearest to the place where they want to live when I hey return once again to civilian life. As each man leaves the dispersal station he will be prteentctl with a certilieate, and an unemployment donation policy entitling him to a certain weekly sum if unemployed for a r-peeili,- period after he leaves the army. A railway warrant will be forthcoming to carry him to his home, and lie will depart in uniform on twenty-eight days furlough, at the end of which time he will be deemed to have left the army. He will be allowed to keep his uniform, but he will be required to return his great coat, and he will receive a fixed sum from the army authorities for doing so. ICvery care will be taken to avoid nil unnecessary red tape, anil to reduce the filling up of papers to a minimum; 'but in epitc of all efforts in this direction it. is calculated that ■1ii.000.000 forms -n-il: be required, consuming. X">o tons of paper. Hut the formalities involved are the Icaxt serious factors in the problem. The real work of demobilisation in the national sense consist* in finding work for the returned troops; and merely to start the men in certain occupations "will do little good unless the industries in question a,re successful, and therefore provide permanent and remunerative employment. Thift is the point nt which the fiscal phase of the problem begins to emerge. We may sot. asido for the moment, the controversial as-pecls of thin hotlydebatori question; for even convinced Free Traders -at Homo have in many instances udmiUcd. that the exceptional

circumstances trill justify Britain's departure from the strict Tobdenitc tradition after the war. We therefore find that, in order to encourage home industries a.s fax as possible, special departmental committees have been set u-p to consider the position of various British trades, cspeeiaJly in relation to international competition, and to devise measures for safeguarding British interests. It its pj-opoeed to introduce: Home form of anti-dumping legislation on lines similar to that already in force in the United States and Canada, and to prevent the sale in the United Kingdom of certain poods at prices lower than those current in the country of origin, and the imposition of import duties sufficiently high to give adeqnate protection to home industries. All. employers have been asked to i-o-operate with the civil and military authorities in finding cnrployrnent for the returned soldiers and in doing their utmost to develop their respective industries B o as to provide the. maximum of employment. It is hoped in this way that both the dispersal of the men and their absorption into civil life will be carried out with

I rapidity and with as little loss of time j i:nd irayj as possDile. The bearing of all these matters upon jthe position <.f New Zealand at the present time is manifest enough: hut the f.u-t ( hat our chief industries are agricultural and pastoral differentiates our j>-ase to .1 considerable extent from that lof liritaiii. We have long taken l'roteetion for -ranted here as a necessary condition for the development of our manufacturing industries: ibut we cannot ■expect to reconstruct the whole of our I productive system in a moment of time. ■ For a lon X -while to come most of our j wealth wiil l,e derived from the land, jcind therefore the land will provide employment for most, of our workers. At ; the same time, it is to the opening irp .and cultivation of the land that New i Zealand must look for its future growth 'and pri>spcrity. It follows that the work ,of repatriation and demobilisation here , must be carried out chiefly in connection ■with land settlement; and. as everybody [should be aware, a beginning has already I been made in tins direction. Hut, quite .apart, from the difficulties that have j arisen over the quality and locality of the land selected, it is evident that large, ; numbers of returning eoldicra who will I need employment may he unfitted by natural taste.; or lack of previous experience fvr permanent <>«x-upation of thus j kind. The want of capital is a serious question. and only a favoured few who take up land on their own account, in any case, are likely to succeed. Hut a3 the pa<it history of the Dominion has i shown, the process of opening up the land ami exploiting nur natural resources must ahvays he closely allied to our

' Public Work* policy, which, by providinj; railways an.l roads antl other means of conuminica.tian f .iia < 4.srndered the land available for purposes of settlement and production. All this seems to us to I indicate the necessity for a vigorous rejvival of our Public Works policy, without any delay. So lonir as the ! war lusted, it was rij;ht and reasonable that our borrowing for public works 'should be carefully restricted. But now

that the war is over, and many thousands will need nti'l deserve remunerative work. «r hold that Government | should epeedily reconsider it-s policy in this respect, and should endeavour by .'large and prompt expenditure upon railI ways anil roads and drainage and irrigation to supply the required employment I for our returning soldiers. Thin course is In'ing adopted by the Canadian Government on a large scale, and it will be even easier fur us in New Zealand to follow out such a polivy because for nearly half a century our I*ublic Works system has been based upon the necesI sity for opening up the country by bor- | rowing money for roads and railways, j and both in principle and practice this I policy lias been here a proved and vii- ' I doubted success.