OUR "ALL-IN" WAR EFFORT

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 54, 31 August 1940, Page 10

OUR "ALL-IN" WAR EFFORT

(To the Editor.)

Sir, —For months we have heard from Government spokesmen and from the Daventry broadcast of the "all-in" way in which New Zealand is helping in the war. And on top of it all one reads of the demands of the workmen—civilians in safety in New Zealand—at Waiouru; they want more pay and will work only 40 hours per week.

It makes one indignant to think that such sabotage of the effort of New Zealand's fighting men should be allowed. The Government has, I quite rightly, absolute powers of control over goods, services, and persons, and no one objects to any restrictions directed towards proper war aims. Surely there is power, and official backbone enough to ensure that essential needs, such as housing for the troops, shall be filled promptly and not at the whim of men who do not fight. I have a son on active service who lias served now for twelve months, including last winter in England and now experiences 118 degrees in the shade. Are reinforcements for him and his men to be delayed because men at Waiouru refuse to work more them a 40-hour week—even at overtime rates? No air raids, no desert marches, no bodily risks—and at least twice the pay that the fighting man gets for doing double the hours. And I'll bet the Waiouru men get their way.—l am. etc., ■ EX-R.N. [It is announced today that the men employed at Waiouru have decided to \ continue work at the existing rates of pay.—Ed.] !