"DIFFICULTIES CLEARED UP"

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23537, 15 January 1942, Page 4

"DIFFICULTIES CLEARED UP"

NAMING OF ESSENTIAL INDUSTRIES "All I can say in the meanwhile is that the declaration of essential industries clears up a number of difficulties which had arisen in regard to mannower and the displacement of labour by calling up," said Mr A. M. Hollander, president of the Canterbury Manufacturers’ Association, when asked yesterday to comment on the announcement on the subject by the Prime Minister (the Rt. Hon. P. Fraser). "It is, of course, of primary importance to have- men for the armed forces.” he added, "but at the some time there did appear to be a danger arising that the number of men called out of essential industries was more than would enable the industries to carry on at all—there was always a danger that that part of industry immediately behind the armed forces would be weakened dangerously. By this declaration essential industries will be able to function, as part of the defence of the country complementary to the armed forces themselves. "The declaration is also a recognition of that differentiation between essential industries and non-essential or only partly essential civilian industries,” said Mr Hollander, “which shows that the Government has recognised a line of demarcation and made it possible for those in essential industries to carry on.”