ITALIAN PRISONERS OF WAR

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 137, 6 March 1941, Page 6

ITALIAN PRISONERS OF WAR

Suggested Work On Farms

OPINIONS AS TO USE IN DOMINION Intimation that the National Council of Production regarded the proposal to employ Italian prisoners of war on New Zealand farms as impracticable was confined in a letter read at a meeting of the Auckland District Council of Primary Production. < “Farm labour requires skill which prisoners of war could not in general be expected to possess,” stated the Director of Primary Production, Mr. R. B. Tennent. “The task of training them would be long and difficult, specially in view of the language problem and the possibility that a number at least would prove unwilling to learn. “To be of real use to the country in the present emergency shortage of farm workers, the prisoners would have to bo employed on individual farms, which would be quite out of the question in view of the incessant need for supervision. Prisoners could, no doubt, be usefully employed in large gangs on land development projects. The prime need of the moment, however, is for routine farm maintenance and production, and prisoners would be unsuitable for this work. Prevention of Sabotage.

“A large amount of damage to farm equipment and machinery could be done by ignorant and unwilling prisoners, who might be entrusted to use it. The degree of control necessary to eliminate sabotage and ensure useful work makes the proposal unattractive.” Mr. A. C. A. Sexton: I think that most of the comments are invalid.

Tlie chairman, Mr. R. C. Clark: I agree. I have seen similar schemes working satisfactorily.

Mr. A. Best: They have missed the point. The idea Is to bring the prisoners to the food instead of bringing food to the prisoners, thus saving shipping space. Mr. H. O. Mellsop said he had seen internees during the last war working on the construction of the Waiuku railwav line and the results were far from satisfactory. One man who was being paid 16/- a day dragged each shovelful of spoil along the ground before dumping it. Actually, this man did about half a day’s work. The chairman said he believed that if the war continued some such scheme would have to be introduced for the employment of prisoners of war.