FOUR FIRST DUTIES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 56, 7 March 1944, Page 4

FOUR FIRST DUTIES

To the Editor.

New Zealand has four supreme duties —to the war, our warriors, our workers, and the world. ■ The first of these is being attended to by the use of our soldiers, which entitles them to our second duty. Unfortunately—and unfairly to them —this has never been adequately defined. What they have is the vague contract made with them by our Cabinet Ministers during mobilisation days in the words "generous and sympathetic treatment." That contract should have received a Law Court assessment at that date, based on what the men were losing and facing, as they stepped aboard. And that assessment should have been stated in clear terms in a questionnaire issued to each man, seeking his desires in rehabilitation. The Government is now able to fall back on the meagre policy of helping him back into his former occupation. That presupposes a scarcity of billets in due time and a depression, which will not be in the interest of the workers. A policy should have been laid down years ago to develop agriculture, especially dairying, among the returning soldiers, for three reasons: (1) One farm worker is said to create town employment for two or three persons; it thus prevents a depression. (2) Farm exports are essential to buy our indispensable imports and pay our debts. (3) The world will be begging for our products over an extensive future, with money the one thing plentiful ARTHUR SAINSBURY.