MANPOWER POSITION

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXII, Issue 254, 25 September 1942, Page 4

MANPOWER POSITION

HELP FOR FARMERS THE ARMY’S PART. (P.A.) CHRISTCHURCH, Sept. 24. “The manpower position will, I hope, be no worse,” the Minister of Primiry Production for War Purposes (Mr Poison) said to Canterbury Production Councils at a special conference in Christchurch to-night. “The industry cannot stand more men being called up. Indeed, too many have gone already. It might be possible to supplement our farm labour forces from some other sources.”

The Minister said that no statement by him had been unhonoured and no promise unfulfilled since the inception of the production campaign. A very great number of men had been released from the Army and a great many moic prevented from going into the Army, and that was being continued. There had been admittedly a slight pause due to Oie gravity of the war news, coupled with the shifting of men to new localities under the regrouping plan that had developed, and he wished to remind them that the Battle of the Solomons was not finished, that the advanoe on Stalingrad was daily more menacing, and that the activities of Rommel, while temporarily in check, were by no means ended. There had been demands for an enormous number of reinforcements from more than or.c front that tho Army had to meet.

“WILL GET MEN.” “In spite of these things farmers will get men to help them in seasonal operations,” said Mr Poison. “They might not be the special men the farmers wanted, but they would bo good farm hands. Mon would continue to be released on leave for several weeks to put crops in and they would bo similarly released to harvest those crops and get them in and, as requested by farmers and recommended by the production councils without going through tho routine of appeal hoards. Shearers would be released for a maximum period of three months. “WIN OR DIE.”

If there had been eoine dislocation in certain places when the call for reinforcements came it bad not to bo wondered at. The Army was unwilling, indeed unable, to let trained men go on the direction of appeal boards, but men would continue to be released. Nevertheless, the responsibility of seeing that everybody possible was trained rested with the Army and the Government, said the Minister. Though he bad taken tho responsibility ■ on his own shoulders of recommending the release of many thousands of men tp help production and had stood up to that responsibility, the tune might come when everybody who could handle a rifle would bo needed on tho fighting front. Explaining why farming had not been declared an essential industry, Mr Poison said the association of the farmer and worker was too intimate to join the two together if they found that they were mutually unsuitable to one another. Among many suggestions by farmers and others was one that crops on poorer lands should .ho subsidised. The Government was looking at that, but meanwhile it was more economic to increase crops on better land. That applied, of course, chiefly to wheat and other grains which could be grown on marginal lands. T hey had to look carefully at any plan which might add to the manpower problem. Mistakes would be made, said Mr Poison, hut Tic hoped that tho production councils would 1 not begin by discrediting his statements but would rather try to help than criticise publicly. They must continue to play the game with the Army at all costs. They could not take trained fit A men designed for overseas out of the Army and let the Fighting Forces down. They were all agreed about that. Tho rest had to imitate their enemies and tighten their belts. They had to win or die. .