TOPICS OF THE DAY

Waikato Times, Volume 128, Issue 21418, 12 May 1941, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

War and Reconstruction “ It is sometimes said, and more often felt, that reconstruction belongs to the period after the war, and that a nation engaged in a life-and-death struggle has no time or thought to spare for it so long as the enemy still remains undefeated. This view is untenable for many reasons, and not least because organisation for war and organisation for peace are merely two facets of the same problem. Both turn on the essential need for the full utilisation and proper distribution of the powers of production and, though the proper distribution will be wholly different when peace returns, the principles involved are the same. The expansion of industry dictated by the requirements of the war is already, by the problems which it creates, shaping the plan of future reconstruction: and this plan, set in motion—as it must and should be—here and now, will gather momentum as the war proceeds and will eventually absorb, with the minimum of friction and delay, the resources of production released on the termination of hostilities.”—The Times, London.