MANPOWER NEEDS OF AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXXIX, Issue 23849, 19 January 1943, Page 5

MANPOWER NEEDS OF AUSTRALIA

“TERRIFIC PROBLEMS”

ASSISTANCE FROM ALLIES

(Special Australian Corresp., N.Z.P.A.) (Rec. 12.30 a.m.) SYDNEY, Jan. 18.

“Allied reinforcements are required in the south-west Pacific to enable the Australian Government to develop vital war plans. The Commonwealth’s terrific manpower problems should impress upon the leaders of the Allied nations the need for assistance.” This comment on Mr Curtin’s disclosure of Australia’s grave manpower position was made to-day by the political correspondent of the Sydney “Sun.” The correspondent says that the manpower problem was also an important reason behind Mr Curtin’s recent plea for more arms in the southwest Pacific. “If the Japanese threat could be thrust further away from Australia, the reserve of strength which must at present be maintained in the services could be diverted to war production,” he says. “But Mr Curtin has made it clear that in present circumstances Australia’s fighting services will continue to' receive full reinforcements—no matter how acute the manpower shortage may become. This may

necessitate changes in factory production programmes.” “Manpower resources impose a final limit on the size .of our armies and upon the supplies we can give them,” says the “Sydney Morning Herald” in a leading article. “From the Prime Minister’s statement it is clear that the limit has been reached. The calls on the nation of the Pacific war have increased to such an extent that we can no longer carry all our undertakings, military, industrial, and agricultural, on the scale on which they were begun.”

The “Sydney Morning Herald” demands firm suppression of “absenteeism and stoppages, as one way of alleviating the shortage of industrial labour.” It also advocates severe pruning of Government departments to release more men for the services and for war production. The “Sun,” in a leading article, describes the present position as one which admits neither of a lessening of service reinforcements nor of a reduction in production. It says more use must be made of women. “The time has gone when sentimental or political reasons should delay the full employment of unmarried women not fully employed already in the war purposes of the nation,” says the “Sun."