The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1941. OUR WAR EFFORT

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 247, 18 October 1941, Page 6

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, The Echo and The Sun SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1941. OUR WAR EFFORT

JT is customary and natural when a survey is made of the Dominion's war effort to begin it with a statement of the number of men previously in civil employment who are now in uniform in one or other of the armed services, either abroad or at home. This number, irf relation to New Zealand's population, is already large, and of course it will become larger. The enlistment, training and dispatch to the fighting fronts of armed men is the most conspicuous, as it is the most important, part of the "war effort," and the attention of both Government and people tends to be concentrated upon it. But there is another, less conspicuous but also very important branch of "war effort." It consists in making the adjustments—and as the war lengthens they must be increasingly radical adjustments—made necessary by the fact that so many men have left, are leaving or expect to be called to leave, their civil employment. It is easily possible for a country, discharging its responsibilities on the military side, to fail, or to risk failure, in organising the home front. How does New Zealand stand in this respect? Unfortunately it is not possible to give an exact, or nearly exact, account, because the Government, if it maintains a continuous survey of the manpower position, does not keep the people informed of tne results. Nor did Parliament, in the session whien ended yesterday, discuss the subject comprehensively. Yet in one sitting yesterday the Minister of Labour declared that the shortage ol' manpower in the mines was "acute," and threw doubt on the possibility that it can be relieved at an early date; the Prime Minister said the Government was "aware" of a shortage of labour lor seasonal work on farms, and that it was likely to be "even more dilueult' , and the Minister of National Service said that the manpower question had been "under consideration for some time" and steps were "now being taken to carry out the necessary investigation." These statements, and particularly the last (by the Minister to whom it is proposed to give the additional task of organising Rehabilitation), inspire little confidence in the Government's foresight, or in its grasp of the problem which confronts it. Nor is there any food for confidence in the additional statement by the Minister of National Service that the appeal boards are continuously kept advised "as to the relative importance of various industries and the extent to which it is desirable to postpone the service of skilled employees called up for military service." How can the board be "kept advised" on matters which the Minister's own Department is only now "taking steps" to investigate? How does this general question affect the people? It affects the married men who will soon be called up for service. If they are required to make considerable sacrifices, as many of them will, they are entitled to know that no single militarily-eligible men remain in their jobs because they are said to be irreplaceable. What steps are being taken to train older men, or women, to replace them? It affects employers, who cannot plan to meet their own growing difficulties unless they have a general idea of the Government's policy and intentions. It affects all people as consumers, for if an ill-devised policy, or lack of policy, results in there being adequate labour for non-essential industries, and insufficient labour for essential Industries, then in the end necessary goods and services ■yvlll be in short supply and their cost will rise (and no price-fixing machinery will keep them down) while some luxuries and "conventional necessities" will be in abundance. All this is not a condition which may possibly arise. It will arise, surely and inevitably, unless strong and far-seeing efforts are made to avert it, or minimise it. Judged by the Statements of the Ministers yesterday, the efforts to date have not been successful, although the difficulties to date have been few and slight by comparison with those which lie ahead. It is not that the Government has not sufficient power, or adequate administrative machinery; if anything, there are too many Departments, too many committees, too many conferences. The real need is for simplification of administration, and a stronger "drive" behind it.