ECONOMIC WAR

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 June 1940, Page 9

ECONOMIC WAR

WORKING HARDER FOR VICTORY “In France, just as' in Britain, the chief objective in the economic war is not simply to cut down the spending and consumption of the people, not simply to reduce their slice of the national cake. Steps have been taken to increase again the size of the cake itself, measures to restore the smooth working of industries upset by mobilisation, measures to ensure supplies of essential raw materials, measures to set farming once more on its feet by cheapening seed, corn and fertilisers and by pressing more women into service.” said Mr Donald Tyerman in a recent address. "It is a drastic plan that they have worked out in France. Long overtime is a commonplace—men work 50 hours a week and more—and State control has been imposed upon wages and working conditions. Generally speaking, wages must stay at their pre-war level, and workers cannot move from job to job without permission. Many mobilised workers have been sent back from the Army to essential war work, but 15 per cent of their wages must go back to the State —the French soldier himself gets only 15 sous —less than a shilling—a day. All the wages paid for working over 40 hours a week and under 45 hours a week are taken away. A third of the overtime paid for working more than 45 hours a week passes to the Government. You can see from this how hard it would be to find a plainer example of the meaning of economic war, for ordinary people like you and me, than the way in which it is being carried on by ordinary Frenchmen.”