Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1943. WORK AFTER WAR SERVICE.

Wairarapa Times-Age, 15 February 1943, Page 2

Wairarapa Times-Age MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1943. WORK AFTER WAR SERVICE.

jJ|j[ANY people may be expected to sympathise with opinions on the subject of rehabilitation policy expressed by a correspondent whose letter we published on Saturday. The writer of the letter contended that there was too much talk about tunnelling, afforestation, reading and drainage works, etc., as avenues of employment for the members of our fighting forces when they return from overseas, and suggested that, men who had not served in the armed forces should be drafted to works of this kind, thus opening up opportunities-for our returning men to rehabilitate themselves in commerce and industry.

Our correspondent pdssibly may have over-emphaSised or exaggerated the extent to which State development and local body works are being looked to as a field of employment for the members of our armed forces as they return from overseas, but there should be no difficulty in any case in agreeing that every possible opportunity must be given to those who have served their country in war, and desire to do so, to take up whatever branches of skilled, professional or other work they are fitted for, or can.be qualified by special training to undertake. It may be hoped that the idea of offering only labouring work to men who may have altogether different ideas about their own future would be as abhorrent to everyone else as it would be to these men themselves.

There is no hard and fast line to be drawn, in this matter, between development work and other branches of "useful and productive activity. Particularly under the methods developed by the present Minister of Public Works (Mr Semple) with a full use of modern, labour-saving machinery, there is a good deal of development work which may be expected to appeal to men who, as part of their war experience, have learnt to grapple with the problems of Army transport and mechanical maintenance in pursuing a retreating enemy over 1,500 miles of mostly desert country. Some of those who have thus tamed the desert may find entirely congenial employment in the road and railway extension and improvement, forestry and afforestation, river protection and other works that are in prospect in New Zealand. Activities in these categories may appeal as strongly to some returning members of our fighting forces as farming, where land is made available in the right conditions, will appeal to others.

The widest choice of employment certainly must be offered, however, to our men returning from the war, together with ample opportunities for training or study where these are needed. Some of the considerable number of men already invalided home have been enabled to take up or resume studies or training, but arrangements of the kind will have to be extended greatly as time goes on and particularly when the war comes to an end. Every effort must be made to overcome whatever handicaps men have incurred, on account of war service, in preparation for civil life.

This applies not only to men who have served and are serving overseas, but to lads called up at the age of 18 and subject as matters stand to three years’ military training, with very little chance of continuing, during that period, studies or industrial or other training.

So far as the bulk of the men now fighting for their country are concerned it may be hoped that they will themselves, play a decisive part in dealing with all that comes under the head of rehabilitation, and indeed with the handling of national affairs in their broadest scope. They are the flower of the country’s manhood, engaged now in defending and preserving the national heritage. In normal course it will fall to those of them who return from their war service to take the lead in determining how that heritage is to be used and developed in the years that ]ie ahead.