RETURNED SOLDIERS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 7 November 1941, Page 4

RETURNED SOLDIERS

POSITION AFTER WAR REHABILITATION PROBLEMS. DEALT WITH BY MINISTER. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) INVERCARGILL, November 6. Problems of the rehabilitation of men who return from the present war were dealt with by the Minister of Industries and Commerce, Mr Sullivan, in an address at the annual conference of the Associated Chambers of Commerce of New Zealand today.

He said that the recently-passed Rehabilitation Act provided that commerce, industry, agriculture, the R.S.A. and other recognised organisations would find a place in the work that was to be done under the Act. At present factories and workshops were geared to a high pitch turning out war supplies. To revert all this activity to peace time use would be a delicate and arduous task. It would require careful planning to avoid wholesale unemployment, dislocation of industry and idle machinery when the switch-over was made. Industrial reorganisation must take the form which would provide most employment for those who needed it and at the same time promote efficiency and general welfare to the highest degree. “At this stage we can be certain of one thing,” Mr Sullivan said. “The post-war world will be a vastly different place from the world- of 1937-39. Our national • economy after the war will be affected by world conditions. If our income from imports is high there might be a tendency to indulge in large-scale importations to the detriment of our domestic industries. That would not be wise. Neither can we expect to be entirely free to please ourselves. On the other hand, a period of low prices for our exports- may force a large measure of self-sufficiency on

“We must plan for both of these contingencies. We must be ready to adapt our national economy to the best advantage in any new order that is established.

“Concerning the absorption of our men into industry, the plans of the Government definitely include further expansion of manufacturing, carefullyplanned land settlement, technical training schemes and schools, in fact everything that will give our men the fullest scope to rehabilitate themselves and to live full lives free from economic worry.”