CHANGE URGED

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21809, 4 September 1945, Page 4

CHANGE URGED

DISCHARGE RATE CALL FOR SPEED THE NEW COMMONS BRIGHT YOUNG TALENT (Special Correspondent.) (11 a.m.) LONDON, Sept. 3. Demobilisation is the chief question in which the average man and woman in Britain is interested to-day. The majority of the men and women want to be demobilised as soon as possible and they are needed urgently in industry to set the wheels of peace production going. The present rate is too slow for .those concerned and the recent statement in the House of Commons by Mr. G. A. Isaacs, the Minister of Labour, is regarded as disappointing and even depressing. The Government has so far chosen to abide in the essentials by the scheme which was devised to cover t.ie period between the defeat of Germany and the defeat of Japan, and there are energetic demands that it be changed. Five Socialist members have waited on Mr. Isaacs to report popular feelings about the subject. It has since been slated that the entire question of demobilisation has been reviewed during the Parliamentary recess and that Mr. AttlS'e may indicate' the Government’s plan for a speed-up. , „ It is also expected that the Prime Minister will refer to a number of outstanding topics, including lend-lease and UNRRA. Parliament is in recess until October 9.

All comment meanwhile emphasises that the new House of Commons which assembled last month for the first time revealed a more radical change than could have been gathered from the election figures alone. The attendance was high and attention keen, and the succession of maiden speeches as remarkable for quality as for volume. Typical Lhbour Member

Commenting, the Economist says: “It is new becoming apparent that the new Labour member is a very diflerent animal from the old—and, by the same token, from the Labour Minister. Tne gulf between the Treasury bench and the back benches must be greater today than at any other time in Parliamentary history. “This is not merely the gulf of age but of character. The typical Labour Minister is an elderly, cautious tracie unionist whose formal education stopper at the age of 12 or lower. The typical Labour member is a Keen, intelligent' young professional man witn a brilliant University career behind him. The New Statesman and Nation says: “The Government is almost embarrassed by the profusion of competence, experts and talent,” and adds: 1 the old type of ‘working class’ M.P. may soon disappear. Secondary education and war service have combined to produce a remarkable result that one cou.d not tell from listening to the 45 Laoour maiden speakers who were of working and middle-class origin. ‘‘Even more important, the question seemed irrelevant. They were all Socialists —and they were all experts on some facet of home or world politics. In a sense, this is the first Parliament of technicians —and that may be the most revolutionary thing about it. * Mr. Vernon Bartlett, M.P., in The Spectator comments on ‘‘the whirlwind of enthusiasm” sweeping through the Palace of Westminster and declares that the newcomers have been self-confident, and clear, and, almost without exception, they made speeches intprpsting in themselves.