BRITAIN AT WAR

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22883, 2 December 1939, Page 12

BRITAIN AT WAR

Industrial Mobilisation “ORGANISED LABOUR NOT FULLY UTILISED” TBv the RT. HON. ARTHUR GREENWOOD, M.P. Deputy-Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons.] To a vast number of people the war seems to be a phantom war. 'lt lacks reality. The reason, I think, is that everybody assumed that when war broke out Britain and France would be subjected to heavy air bombardment. This feeling has been intensified, by the paucity of war news, for which the British Government s timidity and mishandling of the problem of information are very largely responsible. But, in fact, the war is “on.” In their hearts the British people , know it, though it has-not so far manifested itself according to prediction. They are not afraid. There is none of the hysteria of the early days of the last Great War. There is no “flag-wagging.” There are no processions of excited people. There is, on the other hand, an acceptance of a challenge, and, without heroics, a grim determination to “see it through.” We have been slow in preparation. We have bungled and blundered as is the British way. But the nation’s resources are being Organised and will be increasingly organised and utilised as time goes on. Labour at Home Behind the fighting services the munitions ■ industries are pouring out increasing .quantities of war materials. It is not yet sufficient. On the floor of the House of Commons I have said that our industrial resources are, as yet, not fully mobilised. Men and women, owing to war conditions, have lost their employment, _Their willing services have yet to be used. Buildings plant, and machinery are standing idle because of the change-over to war conditions. They also must be brought into play so as to make their full contribution to the national effort. The mind and intelligence of organised labour has yet to be fully utilised, . . . ■ The scale of the British nation’s activities cannot be foreseen. The magnitude of the industrial output which we must envisage is colossal. Modern warfare is largely mechanised. As the Secretary of State, for War said in the House of Commons a few days ago: “Nearly 60 per cent, of the fighting troops in 1914 were infantrymen, relying on their rifles and bayonets and two machine-guns a battalion. Now, only 20 per cent, of the fighting troops are infantrymen, with 50 Bren guns between them, 22 anti-tank rifles, and’other weapons as well with each battalion.” , , . Consequently, the worker at home, helping to provide these supplies, is a vital part of, the tragic blit necessary machinery of war. . (World copyright, - 1939, -by ■ COOPERATION. Reproduction in whole or part strictly forbidden.). ___