BRITISH PEOPLE ARE TIRED AND FED UP

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22663, 14 June 1948, Page 6

BRITISH PEOPLE ARE TIRED AND FED UP

Tired, fed up, and, at the moment, lackadaisical, is how Mr. A. Broaie, who has returned to New Plymouth from after 10 years there as a civil engineer, views the British people. Well filied pockets, he considers. blinded them to the economic crisis that has been threatening for some years. The only remedy, said Mr. Brodie, was in the hands of the people themselves, but because too much easy money lessened the incentive to work, there were some who were not pulling their weight. Mr. Brodie stressed the trials through which the British people were going, however, and mentioned the value of New Zealand food parcels... In 1938 Mr. Brodie went to Britain where he joined the staff of the Office of Works and subsequently held many important posts associated with wartime construction and industry. The common belief that Earl Baldwin and Mr. Neville Chamberlain did nothing when the war-storm was obviously gathering was discounted by Mr. Brodie’s first experience with the Ministry. He was sent to Preston aa a sectional engineer associated with the construction of vast underground magazines for the storage of explosives, the undertaking being one of three, each costing £10,000,000 in pre-war money. Huge Plants “We had been under the impression that nothing was being done to meet the developing situation," he commented, “but one of these huge munitions plants was completed soon after wer arrived, and from the money involved and the great amount of preliminary planning necessary it was evident that Britain had been alive to the need from 1934 or before.” After nine months at Preston, Mr. Brodie went to the Clyde to assist in the construction of three big factories to produce nitric and sulphuric acid, nitro-glycerine, nitro-cellulose, cordite and detonators. For a year he wag deputy resident engineer on a job costing £14,000,000 and taking three years to complete. With 15,000 workmen under his supervision, many of them having to travel distances up to 40 miles to their work, Mr. Brodie spent six months in 1943 on the construction of a factory in North Wales. Then he was for 12 months resident engineer on the construction of an ammunition depot in Cheshire, south of Manchester. After that he was appointed by the Works Ministry to be regional works engineer for the Birmingham area with jurisdiction over four counties. While at Birmingham he was responsible for many big construction jobs.