WOMEN NAVVIES

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVI, Issue 66, 15 September 1943, Page 7

WOMEN NAVVIES

MR. M ciAGAN'S CHARGE

MAN-POWER POSITION

Reference to a picture of women repairing tram tracks which a Press photographer had taken and which the National Party allegedly intended to use for Dominion-wide propaganda purposes was made by the Minister of National Service (Mr. McLagan) when speaking at Northland last night in support of the candidature of Mrs. C. Stewart, Labour candidate for Wellington West. Mr. McLagan claimed that the scheme had misfired because it did not quite work out as expected.

In the course of a further defence of the Government's handling of manpower, Mr. McLagan said that the Government would not attempt to maintain two overseas divisions longer than was possible, but submitted that the commitment was comfortably within the country's resources at the present time. Mr. McLagan had to deal with a number of interjections but received an enthusiastic reception from an audience which filled St. Anne's Hall.

The speaker said that there had" been several ingenious attempts to explain away Parliament's unanimous acceptance of the man-power report, and Mr. Holland had said at New Plymouth that no vote had been taken. That was quite true, because the critics of the Government did not see fit to force a vote on the issue.

The Government then decided to call together another body of critics, the newspaper editors of the Dominion, to whom the confidential report had been submitted. Again there had been no criticism and it had since been stated that this was because there was not sufficient time for the editors to consider the matter. They had found time, however, to discuss many little trifles, such as whether Bill Smith should have been drafted into the Army after he had lodged an appeal, and whether Jim Jones should be brought out of the Army. They had no time to suggest improvements, but they were finding time now. No doubt they would continue talking about the "muddle" until September 25.

V REPAIRING TRAM TRACKS

Some people had done more than talk about the.man-power muddle. Mr. T. C. A. Hislop had set out to prove that it existed. He conceived the brilliant idea of putting women navvies on to repairing tram tracks in Wellington, but he slightly miscalculated. He thought it would result in some very useful National Party propaganda; and on the day that the women were started a Press photographer went out on to the job to take a photograph, which was going to be used during the election.

The picture showed women doing heavy work. Some were tamping down the sealing mixture while others were lugging drums of bitumen about, but the stunt recoiled on Mr. Hislop's head because the photograph showed that the women were doing heavy manual work. It had been intended to use that picture throughout New Zealand as final and irrevocable proof of the man-power muddle, and of how such a stage had been reached that women had to do that kind of work. Even on the City Council there was big division of opinion, many of the councillors realising that the work was unsuitable and that there was no justification for asking women to do it. When the Man-power Department sent nine men to do the work only one of them was given a job, and when the Department offered to provide 200 men for part-time work on the weekends it was told that they could not be used because of lack of plant and supervision. As things had turned out the photograph would not be used for propaganda.

MR. DOIDGE'S SAYINGS

Mr. McLagan went on to say thaiMr. F. W. Doidge was another gentleman, who had a conviction that there was a man-power muddle. Unfortunately for Fred Doidge some of his earlier remarks were on record. In December, .1940, he had said that New ■Zealand sent 100,000 men overseas in the last war and should be able to send 200,000 this time. Though only 95,000 had been sent Mr. Doidge maintained that the Dominion was heavily overcommitted. Mr. Doidge was not only going to send 200,000 men to fight, he was also going to draw upon the industrial man-power. He contended that we.should send engineers from the railway workshops, coal miners, and waterside workers. He even wanted to send farmers, despite the fact that, because of the differences in climate and soil, they could produce four times as much in New Zealand as in Britain.

Mr. McLagan said that while Mr. R. L. Patterson was in New Zealand the United States Under-Secretary for War made a special request for Mr. McLagan to discuss New Zealand's manpower provisions with Rim, and had subsequently said that the scheme was exactly what President Roosevelt wanted to put into operation in America.

"Do you think New Zealand can maintain two divisions overseas?" a member of the audience asked. "At the present time, yes," replied Mr. McLagan, "but not for all time. Nobody would say that any nation could maintain its present commitments for all time. At present we can do it comfortably, but if the war lasts long enough to make it impossible we will reduce it long before the country suffers."