TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays WEDNESDAY, 14th JANUARY, 1941 MAN-POWER

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 64, Issue 4523, 14 January 1942, Page 4

TE AWAMUTU COURIER Printed on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays WEDNESDAY, 14th JANUARY, 1941 MAN-POWER

THE completion of mobilisation of the National Military Reserve and the Territorial Force this week, and the calling up at an early date of all the remaining single men and married men without children, must create serious difficulties for business and industry throughout the Dominion. That is inevitable. Both the employer who is to be deprived for an indefinite time of the services of valuable personnel, and the person who has to leave Lis business to look after itself, will, as the Otago Daily Times observes, recognise the necessity of accepting without demur the call of duty. The temporary sacrifices that will be involved are part of the price that a free people must pay for liberty. The problem of placing the Dominion on a war basis is not, however, to be resolved merely by drafting every fit man into military service. Essential industries and services must be maintained, no matter how grim the emergency. In a statement announcing the fresh mobilisation plans the Minister of National Service suggested that those who are convinced that a postponement of service is warranted should appeal to the local Man power Committees. It may be doubtful whether a haphazard system such is this would be, of determining whether the services of this man or that are essential in his employment, provides a reasonable approach to a problem that must be faced. Indeed, past decisions of Manpower Committees do not justify the hope, they "take too much for granted ”; their investigation into appeals is not searching enough. Except that the Government is in possession of register compiled some time ago which provide, incidentally, a record of occupation, it would seem likely that it is without the definite information upon which a man-power survey could be based. Every recruitment, since Social Security and General Reserve registrations were made has helped to falsify whatever record is in existence respecting the occupational resources of the country. It is left to employers, or to the balloted men themselves, to appeal against service, and there are many in either category who must be reluctant to take this step. In other cases, the over-burdened Man-power Committees nuiy be moved by plausible pleas to giant postponements which are n't justified in the national interest. The effect of what must be characterised as an indiscriminate system of recruitment for the armed forces must be progressively disadvantageous. The country’s real capacity to sustain the shocks of war, to make its contribution to the democratic cause, cannot be m asured alone by the numbers of its armed forces. It is estimated that in Great Britain to-day five workers are needed on the home front for every man in uniform. In New Zeaianu the figure may be different, since actual war production in this Dominion makes a demand upon manpower of which the importance is sufficient! v obvious. The utilisation of the country’s every resource that, directly or indirectly, can be so applied as to assist in the. prosecution of the war effort is the desideratum for wluch the Government must strive. To this er,d a system more scientific t’ an, p' rhaps, either the present Ministe: of National Service or the military authorities can appreciate, should be brought h‘o operation. The first need, obviously, is a comprehensive man-power survey covering the aptitudes of every man in the Dominion, it respective of his eligibility for military service, and also possibly covering the aptitudes of women. It is certainly not to be denied that the possibility of invasion has now to be considered, and this makes urgent the need that all competent citizens shall answer the call for assistance in an emergency, and their training in the bearing of arms or in E.P.S. work is essential. But, particularly with the introduction of conscription for marrird men, the best disposition of the available man-power of the Dominion becomes a mare complex matter than the mer» drafting of succeeding ' classes int military training camps.