Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1939. AN INTENSIFYING PROBLEM.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 June 1939, Page 4

Wairarapa Times-Age TUESDAY, JUNE 20, 1939. AN INTENSIFYING PROBLEM.

4 PROTEST bv Raetihi workers against “the dilatory methods A of departmental officials and the Government in P™viding a continuation of work for 150 men m the district —oi at all events the development of the protest at a public meeting appXs to he regarded by the Prime Minister Mr Savage with disapproval. Ge is reported to have said that this is a new and curious method for a Labour organisation to state its Grievances. It is perhaps not so much the method that is new as the fact that the present Labour Government has been selected as a target.

Tn any case it is not the method adopted in. stating grievances but the extent to which grievances exist that ready matters The Raetihi protest is of some significance as a sign of the times. Not so long ago, a protest of the kind agj«" st the present Government would have been almost■ ul } thinka ’ but it is plain enough in any common sense outlook that the industrial and economic situation that is developing in tle Dominion holds dangers which need to be obviated as far as that is possible. The Government which was swept into power as the champion of Ihe workers now finds itself faced by the problem of finding a positive remedy for conditions which are provino’ unsatisfactory to some sections, at least, of the workers as well as to farmers and to business men and employers in. other branches of industry.

A general increase in living costs and in working costs of nearly every kind is beginning to tell its inevitable tale, bo far as wage-earners are concerned, the spirit of complaint is not confined to rural workers like those who have expressed themselves, to the Prime Minister’s displeasure, at Raetihi. Other evidences of discontent appear conspicuously in the .hold-up of State housing contracts in Wellington and in the general attitude at present of carpenters and other building trade workers.

If the Government wishes to regain the measure oi favour it formerly enjoyed it must at least make resolute and enterprising efforts to remedy any actual grievances that those engaged in industry, whether a ( s workers or employers, in town or country, are labouring under. That is to say, policy must be directed to the stabilisation of costs and to the establishment in other ways of conditions in which industry will be enabled to expand and prosper and workers will be enabled to get a. fair return for their labour without haying it partly taken away from them again by a rising cost of living.

The Prime. Minister has gone to the root of the matter in pointing to increased production as an all-important part of the remedy called for. His colleague, the Minister of Labour (Mr Webb) has spoken in sensible terms about the necessity of transferring men from unproductive, or relatively unproductive work to fully productive employment. As Dr. Roy Gardner observes in. a timely little book, “The Basis of Prosperity in New Zealand,” the question of adaptability in industry is a very important one from our present point of view and in some other ways too.

Our labour force (he adds) is probably considerably more mobile than that of the English “depressed areas.” yet we are even now held up in some directions by lack of skilled tradesmen while large numbers of men are either idle or working at jobs that could easily be postponed for ten years without seriously affecting the development of the country.

On behalf of the Government, Mr "Webb has proposed to deal with this fundamental problem by means of the subsidised training of adult workers and in other ways. Up to the present, however, more appears to have been done in the way of sketching the remedy that is needed than in applying that remedy. If the Government will but put its weight behind a really purposeful effort to organise and employ the available labour force of the Dominion to the best advantage, it will take one of the best methods open to it of minimising, to its own gain and the benefit of the country, the troubles that are now developing somewhat threateningly.

THE JAPANESE CHALLENGE.

ADMIRAL Sir Roger Keyes was quoted in one of yesterday’s cablegrams as saying that: —

The events at Tientsin amount to a declaration of war and the challenge must be met. If we hesitate, humiliation is certain and war is almost inevitable.

Brief as it is, this deci a rati on appears to imply that it is possible to meet the Japanese challenge by methods that will avert war. If that interpretation of the Admiral’s words is correct, he is supported by Dr Wellington Koo, the representative of China on the League of Nations, who has stated that the West can call the Japanese bluff by a bpycott of Japanese goods and a ban on exports to Japan.

Boldly as Japanese inspired newspapers are at present proclaiming the indifference with which their country regards the prospect of economic reprisals, it is probably open to the Western Powers to take fully effective action on the lines suggested by Dr Koo. The co-operation of the United States in action on these linos would put tin* matter beyond doubt.

Whether or not she is influenced in her present aggression by the Axis Powers, Japan is badly placed to defy economic action by the nations whose interests in China she is now attacking on obviously invented pretexts. The position broadly is that Japan is under the necessity of importing large supplies of essential materials, particularly war materials, and is completely dependent on. her export trade, of which a large part goes io the United States, for the means of paying for these materials. Japan, for example, imports ninety per cent of her iron supplies, the same proportion of her oil supplies, and the whole of her cotton ami rubber. This by no means exhausts the list of her necessities.

Japan no doubt is in a position to inflict serious damage on Britain and other nations by seizing their property in the Chinese treaty ports, where' their investments greatly exceed her own, but this would poorly offset the loss of world trade on which her economic existence vitally-depends.

Bearing in mind also Hie extent to which Japan is involved in China, and the fact that she can look for little help, in peace or war, from the Axis Powers, it still seems unlikely that she ■will venture to .go to an extreme in her campaign for the domination of the-treaty ports. Legally, she has not a leg to stand upon. The puppet governments she has set up in Nanking and elsewhere are not recognised by any Treaty Power. The British, American and other neutral governments ' maintain normal diplomatic relations with the Chinese National Government at Chungking and naturally refuse to enter into agreements with Japanese-controlled authorities which would 1

alter the conditions of administration and control in the treaty ports. Provided she is firmly met, it seems likely that Japan will find it necessary to submit the issues she has raised to arbitration, or to settle them by negotiation.