THE CANADIAN WAR EFFORT

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 288, 3 September 1942, Page 4

THE CANADIAN WAR EFFORT

Three weeks ago the Prime Minister of Canada, in a bioadcast address, announced what he t,ermed “Canadas manpower policy for total war.” It has now been put into effect and the Government has “ordered compulsory, employment for all persons capable of working who are at present unemployed or not working full time.” Mr. Mackenzie King spoke very plainly, and said that all men and women, capable of performing some form of war service must be put to the work for which they were best'qualified.

Total effort for total war (he said) has been tho goal toward f which the Government has been steadily striving. While much has been achieved we now have come to the time when, on all sides any and every means necessary to accomplish our alms must be employed. The policy will ,be administered without fear or favour, without regard for race, creed or class.

In order to secure the manpower required for both the armed forces and essential industries the Wartime Prices and Trade Board has been authorized to curtail, or eliminate, all non-essential civilian activities, and a schedule of labour priorities has been drawn up. Possibly the explanation of this final step in the mobilization of its manpower is the frank recognition by Canada that,, by the. end of this year, the country will be approaching “the visible limit of material and management” in making war supplies and weapons, with approximately 700,000 workers engaged in one way. or another . in that part of the national programme. The Canadian authorities clearly have raised their sights and are aiming at something larger. They are by no means the only ones to realize that, while, the need exists and grows more imperative, it must be met by ever-increasing effort. The threat of those Powers which boast that they have harnessed their entire national resources to the creation and the maintenance of a vast war machine can be met only by the complete mobilization of the nations that are determined to remain free.