A FRANK STATEMENT WANTED

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 151, 28 June 1945, Page 4

A FRANK STATEMENT WANTED

"THE crux of the problem facing the Government when considering wartime control measures of all kinds was touched on by the Minister yesterday in making his announcement of the first manpower relaxations. "There is a clear obligation on the Government," said Mr. McLagan, "to keep the high-priority industries staffed, and to avoid any relaxation which would hamper or cripple our continued maximum effort in these directions." That is an admirable summing-up of the present position, and it is assumed the Government finds itself able to make these first concessions while still keeping the Dominion's war effort geared to the highest possible production. These first reliefs will be welcomed by the public, and so will the tone in which Mr. McLagan made his announcement. Far too often in recent years national demands on the freedom of the individual have been couched in language which was threatening, and even bullying. Mr. McLagan, however, appealed for co-operation from those quitting their present positions to make the change-over as free from disruption as possible, and also for co-operation with the manpower authorities in keeping employment records up-to-date. His appeal is worthy of a willing and general response.

The Government's ability to make these relaxations brings the whole question of regulation and control before the public again. In Australia, too, there has been constant demand for a policy statement, and earlier this month the Department of Post-war Reconstruction made a six-point announcement covering the whole field. Sugar and tea rationing will be lifted early in the first year after the end of the war with Japan; meat and butter rationing will perhaps be discontinued at a later date than other foodstuffs; clothes rationing will end as soon as production and imports come within a reasonable distance of demand; during the remaining period of hostilities the Government will maintain a continuous review of the system of controls over private transactions with a view to discontinuing those which no longer serve essential purposes; no substantial relaxation of the major controls of manpower, materials and production will be possible until Japan has been defeated, but the public is assured that manpower control will not be continued after the end of the war. With this statement' uncertainty was removed, rumour discountenanced, and the people told where they stood during the final phases of the war.

In New Zealand the Government would do well to take a lead from this frank Australian pronouncement. Recent statements by the actingPrime Minister and the Minister of Defence have thrown some light (though too little in the case of the Air Force) on the Government's policy as far as the armed Services are concerned, but on the civilian front all has been silence. New Zealanders are alive to the need for the Dominion to play its part in the final drive against Japan, and they realise that this cannot be done without Government control in various directions. But they do demand that essential restrictions should not be maintained when their necessity is past. Mr. McLagan's statement was welcome for its frankness, as well as its indication that the Government has the whole question under review, and Mr. Nash would be wise if he seized the first opportunity to take the country fully into his confidence. New Zealand's maximum war effort must not be jeopardised by premature relaxation of still essential controls, but' an end should be put to -the dark mystery that surrounds so many of them.