WAR TO PEACE PRODUCTION

Press, Volume LXXXI, Issue 24676, 20 September 1945, Page 5

WAR TO PEACE PRODUCTION

DEMANDS OF BRITISH INDUSTRIES GOVERNMENT'S EFFORTS TO MEET CRITICISM (Special Correspondent N.Z.P.A.) (Rcc. 7 p.m.) LONDON, Sept. 19. Two conferences are being conducted in Britain at present, both of which have an important bearing on the country's reconversion from wy to peace production. The first is an inquiry by the service chiefs into their iuture requirements. This is to meet the demand for accelerated demobilisation.

■She second conference is engaged on a review of labour controls. It consists of a meeting of Mr George Isaacs, Minister of Labour, Trades Union Congress representatives, the British Employers’ Confederation, and the General Council of the T.U.C. They are discussing the final abandonment of civilian powers of direction under the defence regulations, the reducing of the present age groups of men and women covered by the Control of Engagement Order, which applies to men between the ages of 18 and 50 and to women between the ages of 18 and 40, and revision and scaling down of the Essential Works Order, which prevents workers from changing,their jobs. Both conferences are the direct result of the full flood of complaint that demobilisation is not fast enough, and that industry cannot reconvert and begin to execute large overseas orders because of the lack of manpower, aggravated by controls. The opinion has been expressed that a difficult Parliamentary situation will face the Government unless it can devise measures during'the next three weeks of the recess to satisfy the critics. The Government was left in no doubt last week by the views of the T.U.C. on the need for more speedy demobilisation; and Mr Isaacs has promised “gradual but speedy’’ removal of labour controls, which are unpopular throughout the country. Millions of pounds worth of orders are piled up in the mojor, engineering, and electrical and allied manufacturing industries, and there is a natural eagerness to begin production. * The prodding that has been necessary to get the Government to speed up demobilisation. has given rise to the criticism that Mr Attlee and his Ministers are tending too much to accept the views of the civil servants in the departments concerned, who do not like to see their nice tidy plans altered. Mr Attlee’s Cabinet has also been criticised for timidity, and for a series of gloomy remarks. “Grey” is a description that has been given to Mr Attlee recently. "Economic Dunkirk” It is admitted, of course, that Britain is not exactly having or facing an easy time, and that with the end of lend-lease this is a period of "economic Dunkirk." But there is no comparison with the desperate position at Dunkirk five years ago, when Mr Churchill, although sombre, invigorated the nation with his defiant speeches. Indeed, a touch of Churchiil; it is felt in many quarters, would be welcomed to-day to contrast with the flat tones of Mr Attlee. Another Labour Minister who is being criticised at the moment is Sir Stafford Cripps, President of the Board of Trade, He has annoyed the Lancashire cotton industry with his plans for industrial reconstruction and his statement that non-national-ised industries will be operated by a tripartite working committee consisting of four representatives of the management, four of the workers, and four of outside public interests, with a chairman appointed by the Board of Trade. This has been described as central bureaucratic control and a system of State trading, and it is resented in Lancashire, where the cotton industry has always distrusted the intervention of outsiders. Co-operative Movement

Sir Stafford Cripps's statement is also reported to have aroused much curiosity in the Labour Party as to who the “outside public interests” may be. There is some suggestion that they may be the co-operative societies. This, whether correct or not, emphasises the increasingly important place being taken by the co-operative movement. It is at present claiming the right to be a consulted party in Government decisions on certain foreign aflairs. The National Council of Labour, of course, consists of the Labour Party, the T.U.C., and the Co-operative Union, and it is forecast that the cooperative movement will play a very important part in the Labour Govern-' ment’s economic plans. So far it is the T.U.C. that has emphasised its influence with the Labour Government by its meetings at Blackpool last week, when it was addressed by both Mr Attlee and Mr Isaacs. Its proceedings attracted wide attention. Though Mr Attlee claims that the Labour Party is not a trade union party, but is classless, the trade unions nevertheless form the largest