MORE SACRIFICES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20142, 11 January 1940, Page 7

MORE SACRIFICES

CALL TO BRITAIN GRIM WAR EFFORT DEMANDS NOT ENDED SAVE AND ECONOMISE CHAMBERLAIN’S APPEAL (Elec. Tel. Copyright—United Press Assn.) (British Official Wireless.) Reed. noon. RUGBY, Jan. 10. Tiie passages in the speech of the Prime Minister, Mr. Neville Chamberlain, at the Mansion House yesterday that are singled out for comment in most newspapers are those in which he declared that the war would grow grimmer and that greater sacrifices would have to be made because the increasing production of armaments must involve a decreasing production of civilian goods as well as a curtailment of al lunnecessary imports. Dealing with the suggestion heard in some quarters that the unemployed should be engaged to produce these civilian goods, he reminded his hearers that the figures of unemployment to some extent are misleading for they include quite a number of people, perhaps half a million, who are merely passing from one job to another, and, as to the rest, the situation is only temporary, because the great bulk’ of the unemployed were going to be usefully employed and would be absorbed as we go on expanding the number of firms employed on armament works. Thousands Wanted “In the engineering industry alone, including in its aircraft engines,” said Mr. Chamberlain, “we shall want hundreds of thousands of men. And even supposing that we had ample supplies of labour we should still have to curtail imports of goods not necessary for the prosecution of war in order to leave available our resources of foreign exchange and of shipping to purchase and bring home the things we cannot do without.”

Dealing with the need for sacrifice, Mr. Chamberlain pointed out that already the wealthier classes had suffered very heavy reductions of their incomes and had been left very little prospect of increasing them again.

The Prime Minister added that he did not say that they had come to the end of the demands on them, but it was not possible for them alone to solve the problem of how to reduce the consumption of unnecessary articles because two-thirds of the consumption of the people of this country was by those who had only small incomes. Therefore it was necessary that they also should make their sacrifices. Prices and Wages “I do not mean to imply that there must be no increases in wages,” ’he said, “but I do say that it would be a mistake to tie up wages to a cost of living which in the end can benefit none, because it could only g(ve a violent impetus to the vicious spiral of alternately rising prices and wages, and that is the thing all of us want to avoid.”

“Asking what was to be done to win and, if possible, shorten the war, the Prime Minister said: “We must save. We must control imports.. We must do without commodities that are not necessary. We must, if required, ration them in order that all may share and share alike. What I want the country to realise is that the war is going on every day, although in a form which is unfamiliar, and every restriction which they are asked to accept is just one part of the general plan for securing victory in the shortest possible time.”