INCREASED WAGES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 June 1940, Page 9

INCREASED WAGES

REFUSED BY GOVERNMENT OF SOUTH AFRICA. WOUI.D CAUSE COSTLIER LIVING. A request by the National Joint Committee, representing the South African Trades and Labour Council and the Cape Federation of Labour Unions, for an all-round increase in the wages of workers to offset the cost of living has, for the time being, been refused by the Government, states a South African paper.

In a letter to the secretary of the Joint Committee, Mr W. J. de Vries, the Prime Minister, General Smuts, states that the Government considers increases in the wages of all workers unnecessary at the moment. Far from counter-acting the rise in the cost of living, he points out, such increases would be a serious factor in contributing to the rise in the cost of living. The Prime Minister emphasises that the Department of Commerce and Industries has been doing its best to prevent a rise in the prices of commodities and has, to a large extent, been successful.

He admits that the cost of living has gone up to a certain extent, but argues that the Census Department’s figures do not bear out the contention of the labour unions that the increase has been great. “It must be borne in mind.” says General Smuts, “that the suggestion will mean an enormous increase, as il will have to cover not only every working man in> the country, but also the whole of the Civil Service and the whole of-the railways staff. The farming community will at once ask for higher prices, and so the upward spiral will be set going without end.” The Federated Chamber of Industries has not yet received an official reply to a request, to the Government, arising out of a resolution passed at their convention, to work out a basis of war bonus, the payment of which the convention approved in principle.