BRITAIN’S WAR EFFORT

Greymouth Evening Star, 1 November 1939, Page 7

BRITAIN’S WAR EFFORT

INDUSTRY’S CONTRIBUTION REVIEWED BY MINISTER [BRITISH OFFICIAL WIRELESS.] (Received November 1, 11.15 a.m.) V RUGBY, October 31.

Mr Ernest Brown, Minister of Labour in a broadcast talk on the contribution of industry to the war effort, said’ “As a great industrial country, we had already great resources of skill and plant, and to these great additions have been made and are. being made, so there will be no doubt that, whatever effort is required, this country will be able to meet all the demands which will be made upon it. This is a formidable task, but we have entered upon it with an asse which our opponent does not possess, the asset of being a free people, with free institutions. It is a remarkable fact that we were able to enter upon the war without imposing any new form x of legislative control upon the regulation of wages and working condi “During the past twenty years, we have been steadily setting up in each industry joint machinery, through which the representatives ot the employers and' the workpeople manage the affairs of thedr industries and settle their own conditions. As I speak, this joint machinery is in operation, to adopt those conditions to war circumstances.' In the fight for freedom, we have the inestimable gam of fighting with the aid of a free organisation of employers and workpeople, carrying on their work in the way they have themselves decided. “The powerful trade union movement in Great Britain is convinced that the war is against toices that threaten those institutions, and that endanger the liberty of the workpeople throughout the woild. lhej be lieve that its object is to create circumstances in which their fellows in Germany will be able to regain their freedom to live their own lives, and have again their own free organisations. To-morrow afternoon, there will take place the first meeting ot| the National Joint Advisory Council, to which the Trades Union Congress, the General Council, and the British Employers’ Confederation have appointed representatives. These representatives will be in touch with all industries, and when I say that directly represented on one side or the other are agriculture, cotton, wool, shipping, engineering, and retail distribuItion, it will be seen how great is the knowledge which is placed at the disposal of the Government. The purpose of the Council is to advise the

Government on questions in. which employers and workers have a common interest.” Mr. Brown stated that the skilled trade unions had voluntarily agreed to allow less-skilled workers to work by their side, on work so far reserved for skilled men, and that a register of such cases would be kept, so that when peace conditions return, the position of skilled men will not be prejudiced. The Minister continued with a survey of the way in which the various industries had met and were meeting the particular difficulties occasioned by the war. “A. list of key occupations has been compiled in order that men in such occupations shall not be taken from industry, unless required in the forces for work in which they are skilled,” he said. “This will assure, as far as possible, that (industry is kept fully manned to produce munitions and maintain national production, and, also that, when the war is over, industry generally, will have a basis for reconstruction and expansion.” Mr. Brown concluded with a special word of praise for the British merchant seamen and fishermen, in their most-vital and hazardous work.

CONSUMPTION OF COAL

RUGBY, October 31.

The Secretary for Mines stated, in the Commons, that the annual consumption of coal for domestic purposes was 36,000,000 tons. It was expected that rationing would result in a saving of 7,000,000 tons annually.

WAGE INCREASES

LONDON. October 31

One hundred and twenty thousand dock workers will receive an increased wage of 1/- daily. The minimum daily wage at large ports will he 14/and at smaller ports 13/-. More than 30,000 London workers in the women’s garment trade will receive, as from November 6, a 10 per cent, increase in wages, as a war bonus.