REPATRIATION

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 206, 26 May 1919, Page 4

REPATRIATION

GOVERNMENT, CRITICISED BY RETURNED SOLDIERS INDOSTRIALUNBEST For more than two years past, states the third annual report of the New Zealand Returned Soldiers' Association, the executive has consistently urged upon the Government and the people, generally the imperative need for providing at the earliest possible date the machinery of repatriation. It insisted upon the necessity for setting up a Department of Repatriation under a, single Minister, and for the promulgation of a' repatriation policy. After much delay, not only un> necessary but serious .in its results, the Government created th'e Department, but, with greater regard for political considerations than efficient administration,: ontrusted it to the collective care of four Ministers. A repatriation policy hris not been'enunciated, presumably because GTovermnent has none to put forward, and .any constructive suggestions that have been mado have come chiefly from the association and from .representatives of tho repatriation committees. The significance of these facts hardly ad-, mils of cxagger'atiou. The war, by the , strain it has imposed on our powers of production and by the necessity it ban created for tho constructive treatment of many economic problems ignored by thu older statesmanship, has forced the development of a situation which the Government of tho day has shown itself wholly incompetent to deal with. The urgency of the need for concentrating attention on tho machinery of war hae palliated in a measure tho Government's neglect, but it cannot excuse it. Chiefly owing to an inflated noto issue, and the consequent atmosphere of fictitious prosperity, the increased cost of,'living uas lallen as a much heavier burden on some eections of the community than on others, and it is likely to fall particularly heavy on the 6oldier, whose economic needs— clothing, furniture, tools, homes, and businesses—profiteering agencies will not be elow to tako advantage of. lu view of the fact that the problem of dealing with the cost of living demands qualities of. statesmanship which the present Government shows no sigus of possessing, they were probably well advised to leave it alone, but it is disquieting to realist* Sal; questions of such magnitude and importance for the welfare of our country are apparently beyond the capacityof those who have been sent to Parliament to deal with them.

"The future of the ex-soldier, hardly less in New Zealand than elsewhere in the world, is dark with the prospect of trouble. 11; is certain that radical remodelling of our social eystetu is imperative, and that for a long period to conio industrial unrest is likely to bo such as both to threaten the wholo economic basis of society, and to create eytremely uncomfortable conditions for those whose positions in the social organism nro not relatively well-paid and fiecuro.

"Tiie disturbed and plastic economic conditions caused by the war have created an unexampled opportunity for introducing intelligent control into some of. the chaotic conditions of modern society, and thus removing some cf the perennial causes, of labour unrest. It is most regrettable that the Government has 60 far given no indication that it realises the position. The new Jerusalem which it should be its privilege to build is merely a restoration of the 19H "position, which—even wero it possible, and it is not—has little to attract the civilian and less tho discharged- soldier. In some cases the pre-war position of the soldier has vanished; in ■ other, he has manifestly outgrown it; in others again a change of occupation is desirable in the interests of the soldier, the employer or the community, and unless the problem of employment and production is approached constructively and on the national scale," in such a way as to make the best use of our available man power, and offer appropriate employment to each soldier, his choice is likely to be restricted to those positions which the man w'ho did not fight has not thought it worth while to occupy. ' • . ■■ - '■:.•• ' As yet the problem of repatriation has not reached ti critical stage. This is due in the course of a few months. So far as preparations by those responsible are concerned, tho indications are that it will bo a matter of sheer good luck if we get through without serious trouble. It is worthy of note in this connection that our remoteness from the seat of war and the consequent glow and gradual return of our men, as. well as our favourable social and economic conditions, are facts which ehould ensure a' more satisfactory settlement of the repatriation problem than that of other countries in tho world. ■

"The settlement of returned soldiers in business has not operated sufficiently long to enable an opinion to be expressed upon it, but already many men only' temporarily repatriated are again on the labour, market. The indications at the present moment point to at any rate a temporary shrinkage of production' in Europe, whoso inevitable reflex in New, Zealand is certain to accentuate unemployment."