A REASONABLE PROPOSAL.

Evening Star, Issue 23745, 28 November 1940, Page 8

A REASONABLE PROPOSAL.

At yesterday’s.sitting of the conference of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation, a remit was carried, for submission to tho Government, requesting the cessation of proceedings in tho Arbitration Court and the Conciliation Council for tiro duration of the war, or, alternatively, for a period of at least twelve months. One of the handicaps to tho British cause is tho underlying conviction of people of British stock that they must emerge victorious from tlie present conflict. It is a good thought, but it carries tho danger of failure to realise that the most intense, concentrated, and united effort is necessary to achieve success. Naturally, with the war carried into tho heart of England, the national peril is more fully realised there. The secretary of the Auckland Painters’ Union, who returned to tho Dominion from a visit to tho Mother Land at tho end of August, said the British workers were putting their backs into their task with remarkable unanimity, and were working seven days a week to achieve victory. Munition works and clothing and boot factories were working night and day. There is no suggestion that such a state of urgency exists in New Zealand, but there is a very clear call to the people to subordinate domestic issues to the needs of the great cause. It seems to be very difficult for those engrossed in political and industrial issues to hear that call. In defending the emergency regulations recently, the Minister of Labour,' discussing tho question of industrial troubles and hoid-nps, said the almost unanimous opinion in tho industrial movement was against stoppages that had occurred as the result of petty differences. Mr Webb reached the root of the whole matter when he said that continuity of employment was particularly necessary in time of war.

All this bears on the suggestion of the Manufacturers’ Federation for the cessation in the meantime of proceedings before the Arbitration Court and the Conciliation Council. Under the present conditions the workers are receiving good pay accompanied by regulations in the matter of hours that are by no means irksome, and they might well bo content to abate further claims until the war is won, realising that if any sacrifice was entailed it would be a contribution to the common cause. The Government has been pressed by dairy farmers and others to make efforts to stabilise costs and prices, and replying to representations that were made to him, Mr Nash said he was satisfied that, if the element of stability in costs and prices was not attained, the Dominion would run into difficulties far exceeding those that followed the last war. This is a statement to be pondered, for it means that unless discretion is exercised, this country, along with others, will have to face a depression in years that lie ahead of infinitely greater proportions than the one that followed in the wake of the Great War. The specific point made in the manufacturers’ remit is that there is economic waste in the present circumstances in the holding of Arbitration and Conciliation proceedings. It hinders activity at a time when industrial co-operation is urgently needed, and when employers and workers should be free to pull their whole weight in productive enterprises. It must be realised that when a war such as the present conflict is being waged, the normal life of the Dominion, in every phase, must be seriously disturbed, There is no escape from that conclusion.