WORKING PACE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 May 1940, Page 7

WORKING PACE

QUICKENING IN BRITAIN

IN FACE OF DEADLY EMERGENCY.

SUPPLY MINISTER DEMANDS MAXIMUM EFFORT.

(British Official Wireless.) RUGBY. May 22. lii liis first broadcast since taking' over the office of. Minister of Supply, Air Herbert Morrison said he had been called up to direct one part of the great effort which fell upon 1 he Brit ish peoples, who were now at grips with a more deadly menace than had threatened the British Isles for nearly 400 years.

‘‘Now that the full pressure of the war is upon us.” he said, "the drivebehind work must increase. Its pace must quicken. Its scope must be extended. More shells —more tanks — more guns. These are the swords that we at home can place in the hands of our brave sons —the shields we can throw before their bodies. Here is our assurance of victory—but we must create it.”

Speaking of the decision of Parliament to mobilise the whole of the population and resources, Mr Morrison said: "The rich treasures of our land, our factories, our ships, our metals and minerals, resources at Home and abroad—all are being thrown upon the altar of war as a sacrifice to our freedom, which we hold more dear than any material possession." The department which he controlled, he continued, must have all the materials it needed for the task, and in doing so must leave for the civil population a harder, sterner way ol life.

After a stirring call for the maximum effort in the whole field ot production, Mr Morrison said: "Remember, the underlying thought the enemy is trying to convey to you is the thought that nothing counts but material methods and material might. That is what ne would like you to believe. At the moment ms material position may seem superior to ours. It we accept his standard we have opened the door for the first success of his attempt. to weaken our confidence or our strength of mind and our will to work.

"But we do not accept his standard. We know, even in this terrible conflict of mechanical armed power, that it is the moral factor which counts in the last resort. Napoleon said —and who should know better —Tn war the moral is to the material as 10 is to one.’ ” CONTROL OF INDUSTRY MR BEVIN’S GREAT POWERS. TRADES UNION ASSISTANCE. LONDON, May 23. The Trades Union Council and the employers have established a committee of 14 to advise the Minister of Labour, Mr Bevin. It is hoped that the committee will be plenipotentiary, not requiring to refer matters back. Regional committees of local industrialists

are also operating. The engineering unions have already agreed with the employers on the vexed questions of women workers. Fully-qualified women will replace men at the same wages and others will receive the same wages after a probationary period. Mr Bevin has vast powers which even a week ago were unthinkable. Labour will be compulsorily transferred not only to arms work but also to the land and the mines. The control of agriculture includes implements, dictation of crops, requisitioning and distribution.

Overtime regulations will generally be relaxed, dilution of the skilled industries will be widespread and wages and profits will be under Government control. There will be no interference at present with purely personal private property, but the Government can seize without notice motor-cars, houses including furniture and stocks and shares. Land can be requisitioned for food production and civilians can be compulsorily evacuated wholesale. Simultaneously the control of aliens has ' been ■ tightened, and A.R.P. measures are being polished up. The Ministry of Home Defence and the architects’ and engineers’ associations are providing a corps of consultants to make every home in Britain its own air raid shelter. An illustrated pamphlet is being issued instructing the home handyman how to build protection against everything except a direct hit by a bomb. The Home Secretary. Sir John Anderson, declared that everyone must carry a mas mask always.