MILITARY REQUIREMENTS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LXIV, Issue 38, 13 January 1944, Page 4

MILITARY REQUIREMENTS

Ekom the Eastern Group Supply Council in India there has come to this Dominion a mission of the utmost importance. As explained by its spokesman, Mr I. F. Elliot, chairman of the British Ministry of Supply Mis.sion in India, the delegates have come to New Zealand to discuss how best to arrange the supply of military requirements for the South-East Asia and South-West Pacific Commands between the Eastern Group countries. Mr Elliot emphasised the important point that the present situation requires the most careful allocation of manpower to the most essential classes of production. India has a very large army which is being increased each week, and from bases in the peninsula will be launched the great drive to release Burma from the enemy. Lord Louis Mountbatten's Command requires all the munitions we can send. Both Australia and New Zealand have done well in the matter of their obligations, but, as Mr Elliot says, we have a long way to go and the only way in which to get there quicker is to redouble our efforts. To this end there must be the "most careful allocation of manpower to the most essential classes of production." His statement will appeal to the people of this country who have urged the Government to review its manpower position. .We have large commitments to the Divisions in Italy and the Pacific and to the Navy and the Air Force, while at the same time seeking to increase our factory and farm output. Food is, a prime need of the United Nations, and the greater the volume we can send the more efficiently are we. fulfilling our obligations to the common war effort. But our production is declining and this_ must be stopped. The mission's visit should' not be without profit.