The Dominion. THURSDAY, MAY 18, 1944. A KNOTTY REHABILITATION PROBLEM

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 197, 18 May 1944, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, MAY 18, 1944. A KNOTTY REHABILITATION PROBLEM

It would appear that most of the familiar problems of rehabilitation can receive preliminary attention from one or other of the various committees attached to the Board—committees whose formation was announced by the Minister on Sunday night. The task of rehabilitation, however, is only in its infancy, and as t|me goes on other important aspects will require special attention. For this reason the organization should be of an elastic nature, and the Board should have power to obtain special assistance, from time to time, as occasion demands.

Already there are'indications that the return to this Dominion of the main body of men now on service will make it necessary for the Board to make a closer study of rehabilitation in business. At present there is a committee to look after education, and another to supervise post-service trade training. There is a loans committee and a land settlement committee, as well as a special Maori _ committee. But none of these bodies appears to have been constituted for the purpose of assisting the substantial number of men who, instead of looking to the land or to industrial employment, will no doubt, seek opportunity in businesses Of their own. To some extent the loans committee will be concerned with the rehabilitation —or the setting up as beginners—of men whose ambition is to enter or re-enter business life. But this field of adjustment and organization is likely to be large, with many complexities, and may well need the attention of a separate group of advisers. It was reported last week that the Wellington Metropolitan Licensing Authority had granted ten additional taxicab licences, all to returned servicemen. Even this small influx of demobilized men met with objections from those established in the business. The objections very properly were overruled and the ex-servicemen given the opportunity they sought, but the significant thing was the swift appearance of opposition to this particular form of rehabilitation. In cases involving trade or business licences such opposition is usually brought to the attention of the public, and can be measured. On the other hand, there are a hundred and one lines of business and small industry in which opposition to the entry of men now in uniform may be equally real, though less apparent. It would seem to be a not inconsiderable part of the duty of the Rehabilitation Board—and through it, the Government—to provide means whereby men seeking opportunity of this kind may be given at least a fair start in civilian life. During, the period of the war there has been noticeable in large centres a tendency for alien refugees to enter retail business and small manufacturing trades, many of them of a non-essential character. For some singular reason, the direction of civilians to essential employment appears to have stopped short of many of these people; and as, in addition, a number of them have been able to produce funds for business investment, they have set themselves up in various trades, often under names which are not indicative of the owners’ citizen status. Some have become employers, of labour for activities which are by no means indispensable to the national effort. A number, for instance, are engaged in forms of trading in goods not subject to price control, and incidentally are contributing to an unprecedented state of inflation in the prices of such goods. The questions as to how and why such persons have flocked into the trading community should be answered separately by the Government. The point of concern in relation to rehabilitation is that post-war business opportunity for our own fighting men may be seriously jeopardized by this wartime influx of alien refugees which so obviously, thus far, has escaped effective control. It would be intolerable that this state of affairs should hamper the civilian aspirations of ex-servicemen when the war is over and they stream back in their thousands to the country for which they are. fighting. The need for action on behalf of the returned servicemen is bound, sooner or later, to become imperative and urgent. The plan for such an adjustment of conditions should be* prepared now, and the Rehabilitation Board, as far as its power lies, should take steps to ensure that the interests of our returned men are fully and adequately safeguarded.