EMPLOYMENT POLICY

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 228, 23 June 1944, Page 6

EMPLOYMENT POLICY

. Statement By Mr.. Bevin • * (British Official Wireless.) , (Received June 22 7 p.m.) ’ RUGBY, June 2H. ? “Wc are turning our backs finally on ’• past doctrines and past conceptions and * are opening a new epoch,” said the Min* i ister of Labour, Mt. Bevin, opening a three-day debate in the House of Commbns on employment-policy. The maintenance of a high and stable level of employment after the war had been accepted ,bv the Government as one of its primary L aims aml responsibilities, he said. * "The Government welcomes the fact t that Parliament is, irrespective of party * and with widespread agreement, at last .■ facing up to the problem as a funda- . ’ mental issue. We are indeed grstppling with the problem -which is uppermost in the minds of our soldiers,” Mr. Bevin * added. The Government had come for- ■ i, ward not only with a statement of its * objective, but with a policy for promoting ’■ measures for attaining it. The Govem- - ment did not claim that its White Paper was the final solution. Its main purpose was to declare war on unemployment, and to indicate how our resources should be harnessed. j .. Loss Through Strikes. i It was pointed out that between 1922 1 and 1939 we lost 259.000,000 days’ pro- ’ duction- through strikes and lockouts ’ alone, - More than 60 per cent, of the disputes rose through the need for adjustments, due either to deflation or gold standard adjustments which were outside the control of industry. ‘‘We shall be facing a very difficult situation at the end of this war, and this '■time we could .not afford that loss of pro- * duetion,” Mr. Bevin went on. “We are 1 raising the school age in order that our children may have a better chance; that ' is right, but if we are going to do it, we shall have to employ _ the able-bodied throughout their productive life fully. T Dealing with long-term aspects, the .Minister said it would be the Govern«ment’s policy to meet the onset of any »zlepression at an early stage by expanding and not contracting capital expenditure and by raising consumption expen- .' diture and not reducing it. That would involve more economic control by the State than had hitherto 'been experienced.