FACT-FINDING FOR PEACE
By CLOUGH WILLIAMS-ELLIS
ERE is a vital question about which we hear next to nothing. Is anything being done about it? The war will d in X yeah and months. As demobilisation takes place, the itch-over to peace-production will effectually begin in x plus months from now. Men will become available for industry n any event far more rapidly and readily than materials. at being so, measures should however be taken forthwith secure, so far as is possible, that labour and materials II be productively balanced and brought together in the place at the same time ; that matter shall be there ready r mind and muscle to work on.
For that we need to know just where and of what sort is that aterial now ; what is its quantity and quality ; and to keep data on these questions up to date from month to month, that whenever the war does actually end we shall be ready th a rough answer to. them. Are the stocks located, for ample, accumulating or wasting? Which of them are improv- g (e.g., timber), and which deteriorating (e.g., cement)? What oods have we likely to be acceptable as barter or as export- eight against imports—for no ship could afford to sail again ballast for years to come.
For many things there will inevitably be a world-shortage d a world-scramble. Some sort of rationing-scheme on a lanetary scale would seem to be necessary, but advantage ould clearly lie with whatever people was ready immediately 'th a fully worked-out scheme reliably based on the ascertained is as then existing and just and equitable as between com- ting States. It is a pretty safe assumption that Germany eady has some statistical bureau of the kind envisaged, perated entirely, no doubt, with her own domination and the rtual " cornering " of world-supplies in view. It is clear that rospective needs will have to be studied as carefully as supplies for example, England's shortage of bricks and timber, olland's need for steel, Sweden's want of textiles, and so forth. What are the proper priorities that are probable? This is schedule that will need monthly revision as the situation may hange. What are likely to be the most economical means of ansport and the best routes in view of the (then) available ins and rolling-stock and the imperative necessity for reducing empty " returns to a minimum? Would the United Kingdom justified in buying forward, say timber, ready converted and asoning against the time of shipment so as to be immediately sable on delivery—or should this be regarded as a form of oarding in contravention of some universal rationing scheme? r could there not be such purchase of stocks on behalf of a neral pool which would ultimately be rationed out amongst e members?
It has been stated that food-stocks are being so bought-up nd held in the Dominions and elsewhere for the benefit of ecessitous Allied nations after the war, and the knowledge at the materials requisite for physical reconstruction and esumed industrial activity are being also held ready, or at any ate being kept track of, should be no less encouraging to their morale and to their continued resistance to the aggressors. Obviously, too, we need a reliable catalogue, constantly revised and brought up to date, of all factories, old or new, within the territories of the associated States—their size, lay-out and location—the peace-time production to which they would be most readily convertible, their estimated output of the allocated Product, their needs in the way of both man-power and materials. Some will prove uneconomic for any peace-time purpose whatsoever, and must then be scheduled for demolition (in which case we shall want an estimate as to what useful materials will be yielded by their break-up and have some clear idea as to where these will be most urgently needed), others, it may be decided, shall be retained and kept from deterioration by a small maintenance-staff until it is clear whether the premises can in fact be usefully employed on pro- ductive work or not, each case coming up for review say every six months.
We must engage in market-research on a more than national scale—determine so far as we can what the demand is likely to be, for say, baths; boilers, bicycles, cars, locomotives, sauce- pans and furniture—but above all for houses. Then we must review our potential sources of supply for the raw materials for all these things, and determine in what proportions and to what areas and in what priority they are to be allotted. We shall have to see what potential plants are available for the necessary processes of manufacture, whether of whole goods or components, and then compute, as I say, their probable out- puts and costings, not omitting an estimated time-schedule.
It should be possible, from this survey (which should be on a world-scale), to form some idea as to what materials are likely to be available when ; what shortages and surpluses are probable ; when we shall be in a position, for example, to foresee the sorts of buildings that it will be reasonable to plan for ; whether they .must be contrived with a minimum of timber, of steel, of concrete, of brick or any other material ; whether we can indeed expect only a small rationed proportion of our actual needs for a period of years, in which case accurate priority-planning will be more important than ever. Our vast camps, our war-factories, &c., have, as usual, been plumped down quite regardless of any peace-time planting considera- tions or possible ultimate civil usefulness, but even so some proportion of them may be capable of being exploited during the transition-period. It may be found (through hick and not through good management) that a new town might advan- tageously be founded at or near some such camp, the existence of which as temporary housing for the builders would very greatly facilitate the enterprise.
Another temporary camp might be rescued from uselessness or break-up demolition by being moved all complete as tem- porary housing, pedding the completion of permanent buildings, to some place where controlled growth has been deliberately determined on. Others might serve as holiday- camps.
But the survey here envisaged will obviously have to cover all sorts of fields not even hinted at above—the number, size, location and amenities of the larger country-houses, unlikely ever again to be used as such in the old way, and their possible usefulness under changed conditions as institutions, business- premises and so on. Such basically necessary statistics as these must surely, as I say, be the immediate concern of some department—presumably of the Ministry of Reconstruction or that of Works and Buildings—but it would be encouraging to be assured that the matter really is being dealt with adequately and not, like so many admirable proposals in the past, inadvertently and unfortunately overlooked. Perhaps Lord Reich's new Central Council for Works and Buildings will take it up in earnest.
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