ALIEN BUSINESS MEN

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 206, 29 May 1944, Page 4

ALIEN BUSINESS MEN

Restrictive Measures Asked For (By Telegraph.—• Press Association.) CHRISTCHURCH. May 27. With the object of protecting the interests of New Zealand servicemen both during the war and in the transitional period at its conclusion, the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation is to request the Government to implement restrictive measures on the business activities of certain aliens.

The decision was made at the quarterly conference, which wag held at Christchurch. The federation will ask the Government to ensure through existing controls and regulations, and otherwise, that all aliens who have commenced in business since' the beginning of the war will be required to work 100 per'cent. on war and essential civilian production. In addition, the federation will ask that no further aliens be allowed to commence businesses till the end of the war. or till such other reasonable time after the armistice as will allow returning servicemen to establish themselves in business. Delegates stated that the position was perhaps worse in Wellington than elsewhere. While there was no suggestion that the alien-in-business problem in New Zealand had been magnified out of its proportion, the conference was of the opinion that in certain districts, particularly Auckland and Wellington, the influence of aliens in some commercial directions was widespread and growing, and that it should be halted. Speakers emphasized that the federation’s view should not be construed as one suggesting racial animosity, but only as a protection for the future of the men who were at present safeguarding the Dominion, and at the same time it was asking that these alien business men who had not already done so be required to take their full share of military and essential civilian production.