SEEKING OUT THE SLACKERS

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 87, 13 April 1944, Page 4

SEEKING OUT THE SLACKERS

According to the Director of ManPower (Mr. Boekett), the policy of carrying out raids in all the main centres to check up on defaulters and absentees is to continue. There can |be no objection to this, as once regulations are . made they must be enforced, and the only way to keep a satisfactory check on defaulters and absentees is to pay regular visits to places where they are likely to congregate. The raids may be a source of some annoyance to those who have fulfilled all their obligations, but, after all, those people who have a clear conscience have nothing to fear. It would be a different matter if the manpower officers adopted high-handad methods and interfered unduly with the liberty of the subject, but reports of the raids that have taken place so far in Wellington and elsewhere indicate that the duties have been performed quietly and efficiently and with due consideration for the feelings of those interviewed. The public, too, appear to have accepted the position in the right spirit. At a time when there is a need for the maximum effort in all branches of industry, slacking of any kind cannot be tolerated, and the man-power authorities are entitled to the fullest cooperation in the task they have to perform. No one who is failing in his or her duty should be allowed to escape the net, and if the innocent are sometimes subjected to questioning they must learn to accept the position without complaint.