REMARKABLE PUBLIC READINESS TO SERVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 161, 9 July 1940, Page 7

REMARKABLE PUBLIC READINESS TO SERVE.

LOCAL VOLUNTEERS. Complete Reorganisation Of Labour. OUTPUT FOR WAR AT PEAK. (R.-cclved 12.50 p.m.) RUGBY, July 8. The authorities welcome the remarkable public response to the reeruitiug for local defence volunteers, who now number over 1,000,000. These volunteers are intended to perform duties which will afford the field army substantial relief from secondary preoccupations.

The greatest possible emphasis is being laid upon the nead of increasing the output of material equipment. The Secretary for War. Mr. Eden, the Minister of Labour, Mr. Ernest Bevin, and other Ministers concerned are working in close concentration to ensure that the demands of the Army should not reduce tile labour force essential to the maintenance of the maximum output of war industries.

One of the first acts br Mr. Churchill's all-party administration was the eetting up of the Production Councit under the chairmanship of one of the members of the War Cabinet, Mr. Greenwood, to determine priorities.

Meantime, the Minister of Labour lias been tackling the problem of skilled workers, a problem more difficult to-day even than in 1915-1(5 because of the development of war mechanism ami technological changes, which have increased by 50 per cent the importance of precision processes relative to processes capable of routine repetition in the mass. It is authoritatively stated, however, that considerable progress has been made with this problem.

The register of skilled categories will enable the transfer of skilled labour to war work with the minimum delay. A census of machine tools has revealed the enormous Unused capacity to which labour and material will now progressively be adjusted. The measure of success achieved on the mobilising of man-power with the least possible dislocation is afforded by the fact that in recent weeks it has been possible to place in industry both from the ranks. of unemployed by training, and from the unskilled labour force by grading up, numbers greater than those taken for the Army's at present increased rate of intake. Getting Most Out of Labour. The Minister of Labour, it is understood, is satisfied that it will be possible to continue to meet Army needs without depleting essential war industries. The building ami civil engineering trades have been organised to such effect that there has been great acceleration in completion of war factories eo that many will come into production four or five months ahead of schedule. Steps have been taken to facilitate the geographical transference of labour while' the transference from industries working for the home market, or in some cases export, to war industries is being smoothed by the increase in the Ministry of Labour's training facilities and other ways.

All these adjustments are being made with resort to" the Minister of Labour's powers of • compulsion. They have, in fact, been made possible by a generous relaxation on the part of unions of nearly all "trade practices." This attitude is illustrative of the spirit of mutual trust in industry to which both sides have contributed, and which" the Minister of Labour sought to cultivate by seeing that the Government made its contribution by giving close attention to a continuance of reinforcement in forms adjusted to the sterner circumstances of the services aiming at the welfare of workers am , , a maintenance of Industrial efficiency. •

, It can be stated that the Minister of Labour expects shortly to issue an order providing "for the regulation of wages and' arbitration of all disputes. This step may be said to complete the mobilisation o'f British industry for war. The fact that Mr. Bevin has had the co-operation of the Trade Union Con-■n-e=<= and the employers' organisations Fu drafting these raraiigements is the clearest possible demonstration of the determination of employers and men in the hour of the nation's need to give their very utmost in forging for the armies of the British Empire and its Allies weapons.of victory.