PROTECTON FOR SOLDIER BUSINESS MEN

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 51, 24 November 1941, Page 6

PROTECTON FOR SOLDIER BUSINESS MEN

It is a matter for satisfaction that the Minister of Industries and Commerce has undertaken to bring before Cabinet the question of safeguarding against alien competition the business interests of men who are called to the Colours. The need for action was urged some time ago by the New Zealand Returned Soldiers’ Association, the proposal being that no alien should be permitted to enter a profession or set himself up in business without a special licence,_ and that any profession or business which would compete with the business of a New Zealander on active service should be either_ refused a licence or granted only a temporary licence for the period of the soldier’s absence. Obviously, as Mr. Sullivan now states in reply to the R.S.A., the question is one of Government policy, for.it is of national dimensions and is part of the larger question of alien control, status and treatment. This, however, cannot be made an excuse for delay in considering what best can be done. In part of his reply to the resolutions the Minister stated that “the Bureau of Industry was the only body that could in any way control new entrants into particular industries.” He added that “the only industries in respect of which such authority existed were those licensed under the Industrial Efficiency Act. There aie some 37 such industries,' but the reference to them and to the present powers of the Bureau of Industry is beside the point. It is not a question of the powers possessed by the Bureau of Industry or any other bureau or department. It is a question of introducing certain safeguards, and of taking whatever steps may be found necessary to prevent serving men from being ruined in their absence. It would be ludicrous for a Minister of the Crown to suggest in this day of dictatorship-by-regulation that the limited application of a particulai Act, or the limited powers of a particular bureau, delayed or prevented a particular reform. All manner of powers 'can be, and frequently are, taken by the Government overnight Indeed,, the Regulation system of law-making has become a familiar, and in some cases a pernicious, habit. . There can be no question of whether means exist by which sheltered persons without Service obligations aliens, conscientious objectors who have been accepted as such, and otheis may be pi evented from appropriating the livelihood of men oveiseas. .1 he pioblem is solely one of devising a just and workable system. Cabinet should give earnest attention to it, not only for the sake of the men >vho will soon be called up, but in the interest of those who are already away and whose practices and businesses may already be threatened by alien or objector competitors.