AN ORDINARY MAN’S VIEW OF THE WAR

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 1, 26 September 1939, Page 9

AN ORDINARY MAN’S VIEW OF THE WAR

Enlistment Macle Easier PRIVATE CONCERNS SHOW THE WAY (By Observer.) The decision of Lever Brothers (N.Z.), Ltd., to give financial help to employees who join the New Zealand Military Forces and who have dependants on their earnings, is a splendid gesture. All who enlist will have their jobs kept open, and married men and certain single men with dependants will be paid the difference between their normal weekly wage and their military pay. This firm of soap manufacturers at Petone is carrying on a tradition of respect for the well-being of its workers. It should be enough to say that this lusty concern is one of the colonial children of Lever Brothers, of Port Sunlight, England. Th.e story of Leverhulme’s solicitude for his multitude of work people is too well known to require retelling here. Enough to say, blessing be on the Petone enterprise for a patriotic lead. Our banks and other finance houses also are making generous provision for members of their staffs who desire to serve here or overseas, or who are already serving with the territorials or National Military Reserve. Some of these institutions have not yet given finality to the form their help will take. However, I can say, from discussing the position with various managers that there is every desire to see that staff members shall not suffer through translating a sense of duty into action. In most instances it is probable that the difference between the recruit’s civil and military pay will be made up. The head of one financial house also told me that his institution would do all it could to ensure that a staff member’s seniority would not be lost in event of his absence for the duration.

Many men from State departments are in khaki, and doubtless many more would join up but for anxiety about leaving dependants financially harassed. As far as I know the Government has made no promise other than a guarantee of a job kept open and superannuation paid. I don’t know if it could do a bit more, on the lines of the gestures made by private enterprise. The Government is not so far encouraging the enlistment of men with families or other dependent obligations, but it may come to this. The general opinion where men forgather is “We’ll all be in it yet.” It is a national responsibility to see that as far as is humanly and economically possible families and other dependants shall be safeguarded in the absence of the breadwinners. Meanwhile, the practical attitude shown by the concerns mentioned is doubly blessed because it is voluntarily adopted.