WARTIME CONTROLS

New Zealand Herald, Volume 81, Issue 25054, 18 November 1944, Page 7

WARTIME CONTROLS

ORDERLY RELAXATION WHEN GERMANY IS BEATEN • LONDON. Nov. 10 * "Until Japan is defeated the war must have first call on all our efforts," said Mr Churchill in a state- ( ment in the House of Commons on the continuance of Government controls after the defeat of Germany, j "As it is not possible to look beyond the end of the Japanese war," he f proceeded, "my statement refers to the period between the defeat of Germany and the defeat of Japan. * "It will be possible and necessary , after the defeat of Germany to turn an ever-increasing part of our resources " to civilian production. We must make exertions to restore our export trade f ' and re-equip our industry." ;' Shortage of Houses and Goods Mr Churchill said the shortage of \ houses must be grappled with as if it f was a wartime measure. Active steps v must also be taken to relieve the shorl>- . age of civilian goods and the existing t system of allocating manpower to the ( forces and to various industries would be maintained. ( "Nevertheless," he said, "it is in- j tended to mitigate as far as possible the rigidity of existing controls over "j labour. Many wartime controls over raw materials and industrial capacity, agriculture, food, transport and so forth will likewise be as necessary in this period as they are today. In these fields also relaxation will be possible and will be made whenever circumstances permit and in an orderly manner." The Public Interest Any other course, the Prime Minister said,"would result in violent disturb- ' ances which might well lead to inflation and would be harmful to economic life < and make it impossible to ensure that | the nation's resources would be devoted to its essential needs and fairly distri- I buted in the period in which demands : will still be without economic relation | to supplies. - ' Remarking that it was too early to ! forecast the stages by which control would be released, Mr Churchill added that the House of Commons could rest assured that the whole matter would ' be dealt with in a severely practical • manner, each case being considered not. : only on its merits but also as a part of an organised scheme. It was important that theoretical, ideological and partisan tendencies should be excluded and that the governing consideration i in every way should be the public interest. MANPOWER POSITION REALLOCATION SCHEME WAR AND CIVILIAN WORK LONDON. Nov. 1G The British Government today issued a White Paper outlining a scheme for the orderly reallocation of manpower between war work and civilian employments during any interim period between the defeat of Germany and the defeat of Japan. It is supplementary to the paper already issued on the release of men and women from the armed forces between the defeat of Britain's two enemies. The two Papers form a simple plan for the best utilisation of manpower until the defeat of Japan. Dealing with redistribution problems, the _ White . Paper states that certain objectives had ' to be kept in mind, namely, maintenance of armed strength against Japan so as to end the war as soon as possible, to ensure the production necessary to arm and to equip these forces, the necessity for dealing with a heavy accumulation of arrears of house building, restoration of the ex-port trade and reequipment of industry, and the recovering of civilian standards which had to . be allowed to fall in recent yeare. The same industrial resources must - not be dissipated in secondary purposes and all classes must be able to enjoy ', a fair share of available goods and serj vices irrespective of ability to pay high . prices. A continuation of some measure l of control throughout the whole econ- . oraic field will be necessary. In the sphere of manpower the Government will be guided by two considI orations. The governing consideration ( must be the needs of the armed forces . of essential production and of essential I services. For this purpose the Government has to see that its manpower resources are employed where they are , most needed in the national interest. At the same time the Government ', aims at easing control over manpower j wherever possible and of meeting the j natural desire of workers to return to ! thefr homes and seek work where they 3 please, and of employers to engage I labour freely. The White Paper describes how it is proposed to carry out tbese_ aims and s how in carrying them out, it is proposed 3 to deal with persons engaged in civilian t employment and with persons discharged or released from the armed 3 forces or civil defence. * USE OF CONDEMNED MEN i FIRING CREWS FOR V2 " (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 17 The firing crews behind the V2 offena sive against Britain are army deserters s condemned to death or to penal bat- '" talions, Jews and political prisoners i S from concentration camps, states a II Daily Telegraph correspondent from somewhere in Lurope. Casualties among y the V2 gun crews during experimental I stages, also in the first fortnight's operations against Britain, were so high r that the German High Command rec fused to use regular front-line artillery- ': men for firing the new weapon. The three original firing points were r the Dutch coast, south of The Hague, 0 and the two islands of Schouwen and '7 Waleheren. The position south-west of The Hague was, and still is, the most important. General Dempsey's rapid ?. advance and the landing of the airborne troops at Arnhem caused the Germans 1 to remove the other sites to Germany. cl Reports reaching Stockholm state 7. that the V2 is fired almost straight up into the thick blanket of air enveloping the earth's surface. The rocket attains a height of 40 to 60 miles before the pidl of gravity levels out its trajectory and the rocket projectiles contained in the missile start toward England. J SUICIDE EXPLOITS ' ROLE FOR GERMAN CRIPPLES , s (Heed. 6.30 p.m.) LONDON, Nov. 17 If a plan formulated by the S.S. is carried out, disabled, crippled and x incurably sick* German men and women, * whose lives are "one long lingering ° burden," may serve in Germany as ? volunteers for important suicide mis- . sions, says the Stockholm correspondent g of the Times. There is no evidence so far that the Germans are enlisting such " volunteers, but Das Schwarze Corps states that persons of both sexes and all ages who are unfit for service in the German Home Guard are already volunteering. The paper describes the idea 0 as sensible. It instances one 50-year-■i old woman, crippled and without ;. dependents, who wants to sacrifice her u incurably useless life in order to save . at least one of the thousands of healthy 0 young German lives now being lost on t suicidal exploits. 1 CIVIL AVIATION * MEASURE OF AGREEMENT (Reed. 6.30 p.m.) NEW YORK, Nov. 17 A gentleman's agreement has been ~ reached between Britain, the United t States and Canada at the civil aviation , s conference, says a Chicago report. All ■s three countries are believed to have made concession*.