PROBLEMS OF SUPPLY

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23447, 30 September 1941, Page 8

PROBLEMS OF SUPPLY

♦ EMERGENCY PRECAUTIONS SCHEME DIFFICULTY OF SECURING KEY PERSONNEL “It might be pertinent at this stage, to remark on the difficulty our chairmen are encountering through essential men showing a preference for the Home Guard—a perfectly natural and understandable attitude—but it does seem to the supply committee that some way should be found for securing tlje services of men regarded as essential to supply,” states a report of the supply committee to the Christchurch Emergency Precautions Scheme organisation. ' “In some centres, when for one reason or another support has not been obtained, those concerned have been given notice in writing, that in the event of emergency, they will be required to stay at their posts, but there is no guarantee, however, that they will do so. “It does seem to uj that where men are doing work essential to the manufacture and distribution of supplies vital to the community, there should be power in the regulations to keep them at their posts immediately the state of emergency is declared. We are not complaining that the men are indifferent. In many cases they are engrossed in military activities, but it docs seem idle to allow in many cases, unfit and aged men, for example, to parade with and become an important part of the Home Guard or other body, when, in an emergency, they would be required at their work.”