USE OF MANPOWER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 24 September 1941, Page 5

USE OF MANPOWER

CONTROVERSY IN BRITAIN “BRASS HATS” & INDUSTRY AT ODDS. COMPETING AND CONTENTIOUS CLAIMS. (By Telegraph—Press Association —Copyright) (Received This Day. 10.55 a.m.) LONDON. September 23. There are allegations of mismanagement and waste of manpower under conscription, which, it is stated, have resulted in a continuous tug-of-war between the Army and industry and has been a frequent cause of criticism of Britain's war effort. Discussing this, the “Star s Laboui correspondent says: “Men of forty are being called up, while youngsters of twenty are still in civvies. Married men with families have to go, while single men are still at home. The racecourses and dog tracks are daily P^ c ' v ' ed with men of military age. Brilliant men are being wasted, peeling potatoes in the Army. We are desperately short of coal, but the Army is not releasing (miners. With women from eighteen to , sixty regarded as available, we have fa potential war strength in men and women of 26.000,000, from which the I Government has to man the Sei vices, j factories, shipyards and other necessities Of a nation at war. It is a tight squeeze. Naturally there is competition, The forces are whole-hoggers. The brass hats believe that the place of every man in war is in khaki. Industry says that men in khaki are useless unless we have weapons, so men must make munitions.”