NOTES AND COMMENTS

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 250, 20 July 1942, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS

Many citizens will be in agreement with the recommendation of a Wellington jury that pedestrians be compelled to wear (or carry) something white during the hours of darkness. When blackout conditions weie first imposed, the Minister of Transport urged the public to adopt this practice, but few people did so. Fortunately, blackout mishaps have been remarkably few, but. this does not justify continued apathy, especially in midwinter"when conditions after dark are more confusing and risky than ever. Insistence upon so simple a precaution would not be a serious hardship. In many thousands of eases, it might well serve the additional purpose of bringing about obedience to the E.P.S. instruction that members must keep their armbands with them at all times—for an armband, worn inside out for this purpose, would be a convenient and effective “something white.” Moreover, the wearing of their bands, for such a reason, by thousands of E.P.S. personnel, would draw the attention of others to the official rule.

London has long been the home of exiles, and many men who have won for themselves an acknowledged place in history have at different times sought the shelter of that great metropolis. But never can it have had so many exiles as it has today. A few days ago 20,000 French citizens assembled to mark their National Day and reaffirm their intention to fight on until their land was again free. There must be fully half a dozen exiled Governments which meet in London and three of four exiled rulers. The foreign diplomats attached to these’ homeless Courts reside in the Empire capital, so that there can be little difficulty in pooling information that may be of service to the Alfies and a handicap to their joint enemies. Just how long these proved friends in the cause of freedom may have to stay in Britain cannot be known, but wjien the glad day comes for them to return to their native lands they will surely be ambassadors of mutual goodwill and understanding with the country and the people who readily gave them shelter. The personal contacts they will have made will be another strong element in promoting international friendship. Among these exiles may be the Mazzinis of the future, destined to play prominent parts in establishing freedom, and their thought, like that of the Italian statesman, will have been influenced by direct contact with the freedom-loving ■peoples of Great Britain.

When it is decided to call many thousands of men to the Colours, even though they are now working in war factories, the position is not kept stable simply by bringing in another worker to take a man’s place. Estimates of exactly how many workers are required to keep a soldier properly fed, armed and equipped range from 20 to seven, so that the numbers entering industry in some form have to be, even at the lowest ratio, many times those of the men transferring from industry to the Services. In Great Britain thousands of young men in the munitions industries are to be called up so*that very many more thousands of workers must be directed from non-essential to essential work. The largest available reserve at Home now is the female labour. “The manpower problem,” stated a London journal recently, "is fast becoming a woman-power problem.” Mr. Bevin has stated that there must be an up-grading of older men, and more women and part-time workers in vital industries. These part-time workers are, for the most part, married women. Many of them had had experience in some form of factory work and they were called upon to make their services available at least for part of the working day. Plans were prepared so that the children would be looked after while the mothers were away. Already about 8,000,000 women have registered for war work in Great; Britain and, for the first time, the women in certain classes are liable for service with the armed forces, in civil defence or in industrial tasks. With over half the entire population of the British Isles now registered for war purposes the maximum output must be close at hand.

After lengthy inquiry and consideration the British Retail Trade Com mittee has recommended a scheme by means of which large numbers of small firms, not. dealing in food, will close down for the duration of the war. It has been estimated that there are fully 300,000 of these shops and they arc said to transact half the country’s retail trade in non-food products. The effect of lowered production has been to force some thousands of the small shops to shut their doors. An independent inquiry in Glasgow showed that already more than 25 per cent, of the small non-food shops iiad closed down. The goods they usually sold are cither not being produced or the output is so small that the small shop’s share is quite inadequate. It has been estimated that only one-half of the clothing aud about, two-thirds of the footwear formerly sold are now available, and about one-eighth of the yardage of household linens and blankets, while supplies of china, earthenware and glass are one-fifth of pre-war supplies. A plan tor compensating the shopkeepers who have to close down has been recommended, somewhat along the lines adopted in connexion with the concentration of industry, the funds being provided by levy on the firms remaining in business. It has been stated that the position of the small shopkeeper in Britain constitutes one of the most difficult problems that the authorities have to face and that it deserves the most sympathetic consideration possible. It necessitates a decision on how the burden of wartime losses is Io be borne and how the opportunities for post-war trading .shall be shared.