EPIC EFFORT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 176, 26 July 1940, Page 8

EPIC EFFORT.

PLANS FOR VICTORY.

Shaping A New Order On The

Anvil Of War.

RESPITE FOE WORKERS

British Official 'Wireless.

(Received 1 p.m.)

RUGBY, July 25.

Speaking at the Trade Union Club, Mr. Herbert Morrison, Minister of Supply, paid a tribute to union workers in the arms industry. He said their unsparing efforts had made history during the past few months and brought to a close the first chapter—one on which British working people could look back with deep pride—in the story of how Britain organised for victory.

"The second chapter," Mr. Morrison continued, "will be like the first in one respect at least. Its main theme will be a concentrated effort to increase the arms output by every possible means. Modifications in individual working hours in a factory will mean not a relaxation, but an intensification, of personal effort. The aim must be for a rise, not a fall, in factory output."

A number of additional permanent steps were being taken to this end, he added, amongst which was the constitution of an area board in such a way as to include representatives of both trade unions and management, no longer in an advisory capacity, but to take executive action.

Mr. Herbert Morrison.

"What I hope we may be beginning to shape on the anvil of war is our own particular British form of cooperative society," the Minister continued. "We want a free partnership among fully active groups, in which there is no room for mutual attempts at exploitation, or for sharply differing levels in social and economic opportunity. Such an ideal will be found practicable only if a spirit of unity and a sense of common purpose are bred in us by our common danger, and the stimulus of war can be continued in our approach to the tasks of reconstruction and recreation which await us later on."

Mr. Morrison concluded: "I believe a great majority of our people know, as I know, that to allow ourselves to drift back into the sort of world out of which this war sprang would mean defeat, even if it followed upon a show of military victory.

"I believe we must understand clearly to-day that the status quo before the war is nothing more than an illusion of some forlorn Colonel Blimp dreaming away in a elubroom comer.

"To-day, we talk of freedom as our aim. I believe that the great majority of the nation understands that we can no longer let ourselves accept its meaning as freedom for a few to divide, exploit and rule the many.

"Tliere is to-day an image in all our hearts, an image of Britain standing alone to resist the attack of a tyrannous brutality on what remains of freedom. In all the world this image is impressing itself—through no propaganda of ours, but because of its inherent truth—upon the mind of every man and woman who is still free to think."

An earlier message stated that Mr. Ernest Bevin, Minister of Labour, in the House of Commons, said that undue exhaustion was one of the causes of absenteeism in munition factories. He would issue immediately notes for guidance on hours of work and maximum production.

Mr. Herbert Morrison said: "We have, now reached a point where changes are possible in the seven-day working week. A gradual reduction of hours has been arranged for ordnance factories in which the seven-day week will no longer operate.

"One day off out of seven has been arranged wherever possible in engineering factories, and it is hoped to extend a similar modification throughout the 1500 factories under Government control."