The Grey River Argus TUESDAY, September 18, 1945. DEMOBILISATION AND TOLERATION.

Grey River Argus, 18 September 1945, Page 4

The Grey River Argus TUESDAY, September 18, 1945. DEMOBILISATION AND TOLERATION.

Servicemen are now returning at a faster rate, and, with the removal of security secrecy, there is more publicity. We therefore may expect some reflection of the impatience more evident in other British forces who are anxious for release from service. A ease in point is the fact that, for perhaps the first time in the .Dominion, it is broadcast to-day in the press that airmen are discontented and that at one North Island Air Force camp 150 men yesterday held a mass meeting to protest that they have not been demobilised as speedily as men at other such camps. The incident has, howeven, served only as an opportunity for the Defence Minister to demonstrate that relatively demobilisation of airmen is. more rapid in New Zealand than in any other British country. In six weeks more than eight thousand four hundred members of the Air Force have been freed from service, and considering our Pacific commitments were greater in this than in either of the other arms, the rate is decidedly quicker than was to have been anticipated. The camp where the men are discontented has a vital role simply because it is one of the few on which the speed of demobilisation now depends, and which are the guarajitee of safety in the air transport of those who are to be demobilised. Some people have asserted that the personnel at camps in the Dominion was on occasion in excess of requirements, presuming to be better judges than the heads of the forces. Where it came to a test, .those who claimed, to be in need of labour confessed they could not place any men. The term toleration is often used foolishly to mean acquiescence- in injustice, but as applied to such servicemen as yet may require to stay at their posts it can rightly be used. Tn this sense it also should be a rule with, people anxious for the services in a civilian capacity of persons still needed in a military capacity. Moreover., citizens with land or houses or other property which will be useful for rehabilitation should bear with the authorities in their endeavours to

secure priority for ex-servicemen in obtaining such property. It is conceivable- that by the time that demobilisation is nearing completion, there may be sonic surplus of labour, rather than of employment, such as has hitherto characterised economic life in the Dominion since the start of the war. Anxiety for demobilisation, may by that time have entirely vanished, and anxiety for civilian employment have definitely increased. If liquidation of camps means loss of positions for not a few officers, who might be tempted to wish for no undue haste in the process, .it may be assumed that the Government spares no pains to afford them other employment. Hon. C. If. Skinner is exerting great efforts on behalf of ex-servicemen, whose confidence in his energy is probably a factor in prompting the desire for a change form military service. It is obviously wiser, however, for all concerned to avert any dislocation of the programme for payments, placements, and properties, and, at the same time, to shepherd all available resources at the present stage, when supplies are so restricted that value for expenditure is loss than it certainly will be later. Where men still can give useful military service they are better placed than if they were to become unemployed. The authorities must, within reason, dovetail demobilisation with the employment situation. The individual, whether serviceman or civilian, has not the information to judge the general position with anything like the accuracy of the authorities. Therefore the former must have confidence in the authorities, and must also make every exertion when the time comes to assist in the speedy reabsorbtion of ex-servicemen into civilian life on a basis as selfsupporting as possible. The immediate prospect for those demobilised may be one of recreation and freedom. Without a reasonable prospect of eventual security, even the period of complete liberty might fail to realise the rosy expectations to which the discipline of service may have given rise. It is thus the duty of everybody to display towards demobilisation and rehabilitation the spirit of tolertion so essential for the success of both.