RECONSTRUCTION AFTER THE WAR

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 288, 6 December 1939, Page 10

RECONSTRUCTION AFTER THE WAR

BIG TASK FOR EMPIRE

SPECIAL COUNCIL URGED. ( Per Press Association.) AUCKLAND, Dec. 5. ‘‘ln Australia there is already a strong movement afoot, sponsored by a former Senator, Mr. R. D. Elliott, to plan for the vast task of reconstruction following the war,” said Mr. F. W. Doidge, M.P. for Tauranga, on his return from Sydney. “Among many thinking people it is not so much the outside of the war that engages.attention as the outcome of the peace that will follow. Twenty years have passed since the last war and the problems brought in its train are for the most part still unsolved. When the present war ends it is obvious that whatever the outcome the victor and vanquished will alike emerge impoverished. There is a growing belief that existing standards will disappear and that politically, economically, and financially we shall have to plan anew.”

In an address in Melbourne Mr. Doidge suggested that, the Dominions should urge the United Kingdom Government to set up an Empire council of reconstruction its members to be free of political and racial prejudices and financial fetishes and each Dominion to have a representative.

suited in rapid industrialisation of the interior areas. The demand for labour had meant a rise in wages but costs were high jVirtly because of depreciation of Chinese currency, so that actually the purchasing power of the Chinese worker was about the same as before.