Problems of Demobilisation
The process of demobilisation, which caused many heart-burnings in the last war, will present even greater difficulties in this, and must be carefully and thoroughly thought out. The problem, as Sir William Jowitt stated it to an audience of Merseyside business men, will be to demobilise in the shortest possible time a vast number of men and women and resettle them in peace-time work in industries many of which would be short of tools and materials. It will be greatly complicated by the fact that when Germany is defeated, some of the Forces will be demobilised and some retained for the war against Japan. Age and length of service are to be the guiding factors in the release of men, and steps are being considered to provide that those who continue to serve will not be handicapped as compared with those who return to peadt-time work. The pro- cedure of releasing men and women must be related to the prepared- ness of industry to absorb them. On this we should like to hear a great deal more. Everything will depend on the speed and efficiency of the switch-over from war-industry to peace-industry.
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