The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1917. A NATIONAL NECESSITY.
The appeal which Sir James Allen makes through the press to-day to farmer reservists is deserving of special attention, for it is an emphatic admission of failure on the part of the Government to deal in a practical manner with the conflicting claims of military service and food production. It is evident that the Acting-Premier is now realising the mischief that is being effected by the process of denuding the country of its producers in order to swell the ranks of the army. Instead of first taking steps to tnsure not only the upkeep of our normal supplies of produce, but rather to increase them to the utmost possible extent, the Government, in its lack ol' initiative, provided the machinery of the ballot, whifch recognises no difference between essential and unessentiul iti&dustries, and then appointed Military Service Boards whose main function was to ™et men for the army, irrespective of the paramount need for production. Sir James Allen now finds that the policy of these boards in turning a deaf ear to appeals for exemption by the producers is having just that effect which any person of average intelligence would have forecasted. Farmer reservists are, 6ays the Minister, not appealing for exemption, but. are selling off their stock and shutting up their properties, because they feel (and rightly so) that any other course might reflect on their patriotism. The Minister knows perfectly wc-ll how this state of affairs, which he now deplores, has arisen. The attitude taken up by the Military Service Board has made all high-minded farmers of undoubted loyalty feel that, appeals for exemptions convey the impression of a desire to escape military service, whereas it is these self-same patriotic farmers who, by their desire to at. least maintain, if not to increase, the food supplies for the men at the front have exhibited a grasp of the urgent requirements of the Empire which the Government has failed to realise. Xow that the Minister sees the effect of the Government's policy threatens disaster he is moved to make an urgent' appeal to farmers to keep all farms go-"' ing at their normal stock carrying and grain producing capacity in order to maintain the Dominion's output of foodstuffs. With that view he urges farmer reservists called up in the ballot either to lay their case before the Military , Board on appeal, or to at-once approach
tilt; National Efficiency Board for advice and assistance. Now, the Minister should well know l>y this time that an appeal to the Military Service Board futile, for that hotly would, as a rule, only refer the appellant to the Efficiency Board, the chief utility of which appears to be in acting as a hufl'er for the •Military Board and the Government in cases of hardships devolving on the producers. The Efficiency Board is a body without power. It can collect information and make suggestions, but is absolutely deficient in authority. It may be expected this ""Board will prove of some''?ervico, but it is idle to anticipate that it can possibly do more than "advise," or perchance render alight assistance to the reservist farmers. Why the Government is playing with this serious question like a cat with a. mouse delies all conception. There is one way, and only one, in which the-"national necessity" (food production) can be rightly met. It is all very well to prate about appointing supervisors. Such a system might meet the. needs of the Civil .Service, which is more or less a colony of supervisors, hut it will not and cannot possibly provide the labor and skill for carrying on agricultural and pastoral industries, especially that of dairying. The one step that should liavo been taken at the outset, and was not, still remains. .Nothing, but the nationalisation of labor will meet the pressing urgency of the crisis through which We are passing. It is a step that requires courage and determination. The Motherland has found it necessarv to adopt the principle, and it would seem Impossible to solve the producing and military problems without recourse to an intelligent and comprehensive system whereby labor is organised in such a way as to provide all the assistance that is needed for production and manufacture of essential requirements, and at the same time enable the army needs to be supplied.
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Taranaki Daily News, 14 March 1917, Page 4
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727The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14, 1917. A NATIONAL NECESSITY. Taranaki Daily News, 14 March 1917, Page 4
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