The Press TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1941. The Roundabout of the War Effort

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23263, 25 February 1941, Page 8

The Press TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 1941. The Roundabout of the War Effort

Ten days ago, in a curiously timed statement, the Prime Minister warned the Dominion that it would be necessary to live more sparely and work harder “ in an endeavour to achieve our “maximum war effort.” Yesterday we reported the Prime Minister’s week-end statement that he has “ for some little time ” been considering the appointment of an Economic Council to “ survey, advise on, and to some “ extent guide the productive and industrial “ activities of the Dominion ” in this endeavour. He has “ mentioned ” the matter to Cabinet and War Cabinet colleagues, put it before the Labour caucus, hopes to discuss it at once with employer and employee organisations, and has in view, “ probably in the near future,” a conference to obtain “ the support of all concerned “ for a truly national co-operative effort, in the “ directing of which the Governmei.Parliament, and employers’ and workers’ organisa- “ tions, representing all branches of industrial “ activity, will participate.” This conference, Mr Fraser said, will be “ similar to the Eco- “ nomic Stabilisation Conference ” of last September-October. Its business will be to consider the problems of increased production, as they are accentuated by shortages of materials and of skilled labour, and the lines of solution presented by “ greater co-operation “ and, if need be, control.” It will be asked to decide, essentially, whether the Prime Minister’s idea of “ a thoroughly representative “ Economic Council ” offers the best hope of progress, or, if not, what does. That, in summary, was the effect of Mr Fraser’s statement, which cannot be read without astonishment and dismay. The Government has appointed Ministers for Manpower, National Service, and Supply. It has appointed Councils of Primary Production, Factory Production, and Industrial Emergency, and constituted a Central Advisory Council to co-ordinate all three. It has set up alongside the ordinary Cabinet a special War Cabinet. It has equipped itself with what the Prime Minister himself described as “an “ ‘ all-in ’ authority ” to do whatever is necessary for the prosecution of the war effort. Towards the end of last year it received from the so-called Stabilisation Conference, representing employer and employee interests in every department of- national production, a unanimous and valuabl: report on economic policy. This was all the more valuable because, being unanimous, it gave the Government much-needed assurance of general support in measures to press on more boldly and confidently towards its declared ends. But although the Prime Minister declared that the Government would be “materially assisted” by the result of the conference, nothing whatever has since been said or done/in-which the encouragement and the influence of this co-operative achievement can be traced. The Government has paid no respect to it and drawn no strength from it; and the conference might as well never have deliberated. But now the Government wants, or at least Mr Fraser wants, another conference; and what he wants from it, particularly, is the authority to go on and erect another piece of machinery, when he already has an abundance of it. It is not more machinery that the Government needs, and certainly not more conferences to discuss machinery, but energy, decision, and skill to make machinery work. The Prime Minister must realise, if he reflects, that in his present search for a new scheme of organisation to intensify and speed the war effort he miserably confesses the shams of past assurances about it; and it is impossible to attribute failure to want of powers or to want of official machinery. The Government’s powers are complete; the machinery through which they function is elaborate. The real failure is in ability to plan, courage to decide, and capacity to direct; and that means, of course, that the failure is in the Government itself. The reconstruction that is needed is the. reconstruction of leadership, not of the mechanism that leadership uses.