NEW IMPETUS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 161, 7 June 1940, Page 8

NEW IMPETUS

BRITAIN’S STRUGGLE. ECONOMIC STRENGTH. (United Press Association —By Electric Telegraph.—Copyright.) * (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, June 5. Mr Arthur Greenwood (Minister without Portfolio), in a broadcast, addressed himself to answering the question “Have the Allies ■started too late / ’ Stating that overseas this question would be of crucial importance, Mr Greenwood contrasted Hitler’s policy, who subjugated the whole interest of liis - country and people to the creation of a new, powerful war . machine with that of the Allied Democracies, who, desiring peace, were slow to recognise signs of the coming storm and devoted their energies to the improvement of the lives of their people.

Mr Greenwood emphasised both the advantages gained by Hitler and the difficulties the Allied Democracies experienced in transforming the peacetime way of life and thought into activities necessary to deal with the catastropho of war. The Democracies had now taken the measure of the task to be accomplished, now they realised it was their war. Labour had entered the new Government and the trade union leaders as well as the employers had become associated in the direction orithe national effort. The ready acceptance by millions of organised workers of the wartime suspension of their hard-won rights and long-estab-lished practices ,in order to ensure maximum production as speedily as possible and to sustain it as long as might be necessarv was an earnest of the steadfast determination of the masses to work to the uttermost for victory. PRODUCTION KEYED UP.

Remarking that the Allied triumph would be forged ana shaped m tne factory and workshops, Mr Greenwood said: “I mention one or two important facts regarding the powerful new impetus which has been given our national war effort. - Parliament has placed all persons and all private property at the service of the State. Vested interests and special privileges must give way to public needs. War profiteering is ended. The full total of excess profits passes to the nation. The problem of labour supply and national services is being grappled with boldly and efficiently. “Our vast financial and economic strength is being thrown into the scales. Production fias been keyed up by a 24-hour day and a seven-day week. The workers are sacrificing holidays and the weekly day of resf. The output of coal is being augmented and the home production of foodstuffs has increased. Waste of time, effort, and resources has no (dace in the terrific industrial drive that is now developing. Our ships sail the Seven Seas and continue to bring to our ports all the vital needs of our people and the materials essential for the war effort. Stating that the Allies had the moral support and material assistance of the great Republic of the West, Mr Greenwood concluded: “I take the opportunity of saying to the American people that Britain appreciates to the full the comradeship of the spirit which subsists between us and the solid tokens of assistance which will react to ns. “In all those vast moral and material assets lies the guarantee of ultimate victory. The alliance of the free Democracies started late, but I am confident it i 6 not too late. The prodigious efforts which they arc now putting forth will not fail. Victory will be ours and freedom be saved.”