INDUSTRIAL RECONSTRUCTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 18 February 1918, Page 5

INDUSTRIAL RECONSTRUCTION.

EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYED MUST CO-OPERATE. JOINT COUNCIL PROPOSED, Aus. and N.Z. Cable Assoc, and Reuter. Received Feb. 17, 5.5 p.m. London, Feb. 10. Lord Burnham presided at the inaugural meeting of the Industrial Reconstruction Council. Dr. Addison stated that the governing consideration of all reconstruction matters is increased production and wealth. Towards this end employers and employees must co-operate, and there must be industrial peace, for which it was essential that the employers join the Employers' Association, and the workmen join trades unions. These would be asked to form a joint council. Different industries had been invited to form councils to advise respecting materials, scientific research, housing and other needs, and how to reduce the margin of unemployment. HIGH WAGES AND BETTER HOUSING, Mr. G. H. Roberts, Minister of Labor, stated that Labor would never be content to return to the depressed, depraved pre-war conditions as mere wage earners. Employers must get rid of their objections to high wages. There must be no limit to workmen's capacity and output. He protested against deluding the workers into the belief of a ready-made Utopia. A gradual modification of the existing order was the only sure way to progress. Ernest Bevin, speaking for the working classes, said that Labor had been for years asking for machinery as suggested in Whiteley's report. Labor declined to make up the deficit due to the war. Labor wanted to know whether they would have a vested interest when surplus production permitted home control of prices. THE IMPRISONED AVIATORS. GERMANY IGNORES BRITISH THREAT. DATE OF REPRISALS FIXED Received Fob. 17, 5.5 p.m. London, Feb. 16. Tiie British threat of reprisals relative to Scholtz and Woolley was delivered on the 12fh, but Germany has not replied. Reprisals will commence on March 12. (A London cable on February 7 stated that the Foreign Office had informed Germany, through Holland, that unless the airmen Woolley and SeholU were released from penal servitude immediately and given proper treatment, reprisals would be taken. The British airmen dropped copies of President Wilson's speech or similar propaganda and were sentenced in Germany to 12 months' penal servitude.) , RUSSIAN PROPAGANDA. WORKERS URGED T,O REVOLT. STATEMENT BY HOME SECRETARY. Received Feb. 16, 5.5 p.m. London, Feb. 15Sir George Cave (Home Secretary) announced that tho Home Office was seriously considering the documents which M. Litvinoff was distributing through the British trades union secretaries under the stamp of the Russian Embassy. These documents summon tho proletariat to a revolutionary fight against the British Government and bourgeoisie.