DANGER AHEAD

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 62, 11 September 1945, Page 8

DANGER AHEAD

PRESIDENT'S WARNING Rec. 9 a.m. LONDON, Sept. 10

If the Government holds men in the national forces without employment then there will be very grave clanger of a repetition of the incidents that marked demobilisation at the end of the last-war, declared Mr. E. B. B. Edwards in his presidential address at the opening of the Trade Union Congress at Blackpool. There is irrefutable evidence from all quarters that I men are at present being held in the '• Armed Forces in the Near East, Far East, and the United Kingdom who are seriously under-employed. There must be a still further acceleration of demobilisation. Man-power was the key to the reconstruction problems. The Government must handle boldly and firmly the difficulty arising from the unwillingness of large numbers of men and women to return to their pre-war employment because the condiitons are a strong contrast to those they enjoyed in the war trades. Mr. Edwards expressed the opinion that essential improvement would J [have to be made in the wage standard and the conditions of employment in many industries to attract back the transferred workers. He suggested that such improvements should be a condition of Government assistance to industries. He welcomed the lead Sir Stafford Cripps had given the cotton textile industry by insisting that there must be full consultation on reconstruction between employers and unions and-em-phasised that co-operation between trade unions and employers' organisations was essential. The unions, too, will have to over-: haul and modernise their organisations, and abandon the restrictive practices which impede maximum production and full efficiency of industry. TEST OF SOCIALISM. Mr. Edwards described the proposed nationalisation of the mines as a test of Socialism. "The operating and structure of a nationalised coal mining industry involves an experiment in vital Socialist principles which must of necessity stand the test of industrial efficiency and national welfare," he said. "It must have repercussions on the future organisation and operation of other industries. , "The nationalisation of any industry must increase very seriously the responsibilities of the trade unions concerned." Warning that the Government must be ever on the alert to anticipate progressive changes in industrial power, Mr. Edwards said the existing essentials were now secured by the use of large capital and great toil, might be replaced by other means in order to secure abundance with economy. Discussing the effect of the discovery of the atomic bomb on international relationships, Mr. Edwards said the whole proDlem of military security, alliances, and the grouping between nations was affected from every angle by the discovery. The problems of peace and security would have to be worked out anew. CHANGE IN SITUATION. "Full knowledge that this instrument of war is in the possession of any nation which has the means to manufacture it changes the principle of the balance of power," he said. • "How futile and illusory, in the face of this, is our old foreign policy. The Congress must consider what guidance it can offer to the trade union movement on the problem." Welcoming the proposed new world federation of trade unions, Mr. Edwards declared the war had not ended national imperialist ambitions and the unity of workers in thought and action must be maintained. He protested that the trade union movement was not represented on UNRRA. "The Congress must demand a status in this work which cannot be left to the paid agents of Governments, often lacking in working class conceptions," he said. '