Unfortunately Political

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 17, 21 January 1941, Page 4

Unfortunately Political

At the due date for resumption of work after the ChristmasNew Year holidays, many and important factories found their operations seriously curtailed owing to absenteeism. A varying, but in some cases very considerable, proportion of employees had taken an extension of holiday time. This apparently without regard for, or at least without appreciation of, the inconvenience and disruption caused by their action —a disservice to their industry, their fellow operatives, their employers, to the Dominion as a whole, and, last but not least, to our all-in war effort.

The manufacturers affected naturally protested and must doubtless have expected that the Ministers for Industry and Labour would have officially reprimanded the defaulters. What followed only added to their chagrin, for instead of forthrightly condemning the absentees, excuses for their indefensible conduct were made and put forward as a kind of red herring. This was the suggestion that a contributory cause of the trouble was the rather unsatisfactory, inharmonious relations betw r een employers and employees in some factories. Then the country was treated to a perfect classic of political nonsense—a Minister of Labour actually congratulating the employees of a munition works upon their returning to work on due date! And this in time of war! Shades of Gilbert and Sullivan.

Such goings-on led manufacturers to protest anew. Now the Minister of Industries and Commerce has replied in kind. Mr. Sullivan is one Minister from whom the public have come to expect a good deal of commonsensc and sound judgment, with a pleasing avoidance of being continuously political. But in the present case he has let down both his country and himself. His remarks have been unfortunately political; lacking in those elements of statesmanship of which he is capable. The case he sought to defend was a bad one and had been best not attempted. It is to be hoped the Dominion has heard the last of such a sad business.