MANPOWER PROBLEM

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 February 1943, Page 3

MANPOWER PROBLEM

BECOMING MORE DIFFICULT. DEMANDS FOR PRODUCTION. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) DUNEDIN, February 24. “The manpower problem is becoming increasingly difficult as more and more demands are being made for production,” the president of the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Federation, Mr C. V. Smith, said in an interview. The position relating to manpower, he added, would be the main item for discussion at a meeting of the council of the manufacturers’ federation in Wellington next week. These difficulties would be more easily borne by manufacturers and farmers if it were not for the knowledge that there were literally thousands of men in the Army in New Zealand who were simply wasting their time. Apart from the evidence available almost everywhere, the fact that under the new leave regulations the Army could spare 12| per cent of its strength on holiday leave alone all the time, was in itself acknowledgment that a large percentage of grade II and grade 111 men could be released permanently. While the effect of these wasted months was bad enough in the case of adults, he stated, the federation felt that New Zealand was only storing up trouble for itself the longer it kept boys under 20 in camp under present conditions. The federation realised that grade 1 men and a certain proportion of grade II men were required for overseas, and that youths were required for the Air Force he said, but that still left thousands of men in camp, on guard duties, on A.A. batteries, etc., who could be released, and whose duties could be taken over by the Home Guard. Representations along these lines have been made to the Prime Minister, who was entirely sympathetic, he said, but the federation felt that as any Government was to a large extent guided by its military advisers, nothing short of strong public opinion would bring about release of the men and a reduction of the establishments so urgently required. “As laymen,” Mr Smith concluded, “we are not supposed to know anything about military strategy, but one is tempted to guess at the strategy behind the apparent reluctance to reduce establishments.”