WHEN DEMOBILISATION COMES

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 194, 6 May 1918, Page 6

WHEN DEMOBILISATION COMES

•* DISBANDING OF THE FORCES. * The British Ministry of labour recently issued a statement on the problem of demobilisation. Tt pointed out that tho Reconstruction Committee has presented to the War CaVnet a scheme for affecting the discharge and the resettlement in civil life of the members of the Forces. It would bo premature to make public the details of this scheme at the present time, but a full announcement will be made in dine course. It may be stated, however, that the responsibility for carrying out demobilisation will rest with the Admiralty and the War Office so far as tho naval and the, military arrangements are concerned, and with tho Ministry of Labour as regards the resettlement of discharged sailors and soldiers in civil life. '.Die Lord Commissioners of the Admiral c,y and the Annv Council have accepted as the basis ot their plans for demobilisation the principle that, when a li.sting psacu has been assured, men must be released from the forces in accordance with civil rather than naval or military requirement*. In order to help the sailors and soldiers (o get back into civil life as quickly and as easily as possible, the Ministry ol Labour propose to use the machinery of the employment exchanges, which is the only national organisation 'jurticientlv strong for the purpose, but in order "to assist, the Ministry and the exchanges to carry out the task which will be imposed on them the Minister of Labour proposes to invite, the employers associations and trade unions to give him the fullest possible assistance both centrallv and locally. A central committee, to be known as the Labour Resettlement Committee, has been set up, consisting of representatives of thß employers ,and tho trade unions in tho principal industries in equal numbers, together with represcntativej-of the departments concerned with demobilisation. Tho Minister of Labour will «t> chairman of the committee, and he has appointed Lord Burnham to be vicechairman. To this committee the Minister will look for advice and information on all general questions affecting resettlement. In addition tovtho Labour Resettlement Committee, local advisory committees have been set up in connection with all the principal employment exchanges, consisting of representatives of the employers and trade unions in the principal local industries in equal numbers, to whom will be added for the purpose of demobilisation a certaiu number of representatives of local bodies particularly concerned with the welfare of discharged soldiers. There are a number of problems which can only be satisfactorily solved an a basis of industry. The Minister is.accordingly very anxious that joint standing industrial councils shall be set up for the organised industries as soon as possible on tho lines recommended by the Whitley report, to which he would be prepared to refer immediately a number ot problems of this kind which require careful consideration by workmen and employers sitting together. The functions of these councils in regard to resettlement would be co-ordinated by tho central committee. The Government feel that the problem can only be successfully dealt with in close co-operation with employers' organisations and trade unions throughout the country, and the plan which has been drawn up and has been generally approved by the War Cabinet has been devised with that end in view.