BRITISH CONSCRIPTS

Grey River Argus, 18 April 1940, Page 8

BRITISH CONSCRIPTS

MEN FOR INDUSTRY

Held From Army [British Oliicial Wireless! RUGBY, April 16. During a discussion in the Commons on the organisation of manpower, to-day, the Minister of Labour announced that the calling-up date for men aged 27 would be May 25.

The numbers mobilised, either for military service or for reservation in vital industrial employment, haci reached 1,700,000. Since the outbreak of war, 300,000 had volunteered lor the armed forces. There had to be maintained a balance of man-power as between the armed forces and the needs of industry. Involved in that was a factor known only to the Government, and which he could not di vuige—the size at which the armed forces had been fixed. The Minister dealt with the measures taken to release from military duty men whose qualifications were essential to war production at Homo. He paid a tribute to . the invaluable co-operation of the trade unions in tne organisation of industry for war. From the beginning of rearmament, it had been emphasised repeatedly that the maximum effort would not be felt before the second or the third year. They were now reaching that stage. The Government had prepared an estimate of tne probable requirements of manj ower in war and industry for 18 months ahead. This .was secret, but the employers and workers in the various industries concerned had been taken into the Government’s confidence.

The Minister paid a tribute to the smooth working of all the arrangements necessary for bringing Industry to the pitch of productivity that the war effort required, and .to the growth over recent years in the efficiency of the machinery for collective bargaining between the employers and the trade unions. DEFEATIST PROPAGANDA. FRENCH COMMUNISTS. PARIS, April 1> Fifty-eight Communists, men and women, including the former editor of “L’Humanite,” have been arrested. The police seized secret printing presses and equipment for the construction of radio stations