BRITISH MANPOWER

Waikato Times, Volume 132, Issue 22152, 25 September 1943, Page 6

BRITISH MANPOWER

COMPLETE MOBILISATION HOME GUARDSMEN’S ROLE BALANCE IN INDUSTRIES (Official Wireless) (Received Sept. 25, 3.15 p.m.) RUGBY, Sept. 24 The Minister of Labour, Mr E. Bevin, replying in the House of Commons to the manpower debate, dealt first with unofficial strikes, one class of which, he said, was organised for political reasons and it was this type the Government was considering dealing with. Executives of the unions, Trades Union Congress and Employers’ Federation had entered into what was virtually a collective agreement to submit problems to arbitration during the war. During the whole period that it had been in operation no executive had paid a penny supporting a strike. That was to the credit of the trade unions. Referring to the Home Guard, Mr Bevin said the amount of time required to be given by Home Guards had been reduced and the Government was looking into that matter still further, but we are not out of the wood yet. When certain events took place the Home Guards must be available because perhaps almost the whole of the regular army might be out of the country. Regarding civil defence personnel, although the danger was now probably remote we could not run undue risks. The Home Secretary had already given up large numbers of the permanent civil defence services to industry. Labour for Aircraft Industry Referring to the need of further labour for the aircraft industry, Mr Bevin said he was not conscripting for aircraft in the sense that one would conscript for the army. The direction of youths to the aircraft industry would be done with juvenile committees. In putting them into the aircraft industry he would have regard to their training and development. Dealing with allegations of wastage of labour in the aircraft industry he claimed that the manpower boards had done a difficult job very efficiently and fairly and on the whole had maintained a balance in the industry which had had extremely successful results for production. He promised to look again into the question of staffs of the civil service and bring it up at a meeting of the Cabinet. He believed that members were satisfied that the Government had taken the right and proper course of leaving no stone unturned to mobilise and utilise all available manpower the country possessed. Vital Question Those who voted against complete mobilisation and the full use of manpower and the resources of the country would ask themselves what the result would be. Every minute the war was carried on meant greater sacrifice than the calling up of women of 47 to 50 years of age to work in factories. It meant greater risk to the rising generation—the most precious portion of the body politic. “We work on the principle that metal is cheaper than men, and if you can use your men and women in factories to build the mightiest equipment and the most powerful force that you can, and by the sheer weight of that force shorten this war by a minute or a month, then you are doing the most humane thing possible to end this holocaust for ever.”